Hoax 'massacre' threat at Warwick University prompts armed police response - The Coventry Observer

Hoax 'massacre' threat at Warwick University prompts armed police response

Coventry Editorial 17th Feb, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

A HOAX ‘massacre’ threat at the University of Warwick sparked panic across the Coventry campus today (Wednesday).

Alarms were raised last night after an anonymous post on internet forum circleboard.org warned of a ‘massacre’ in a lecture theatre at noon.

Anonymous user ‘funnycat!Dominicxhw’ posted on a thread discussing FBI intelligence claiming a Warwick student would carry out the alleged attack.

Worried Twitter user @concernedcber copied the messages in a tweet to the University of Warwick, who tweeted back this morning asking for more information.




Armed officers from West Midlands Police attended the campus in marked and unmarked cars, with eye witnesses claiming they waited outside the Science Concourse building with members of the university’s security team for around an hour.

The named student was quickly contacted  and found to be nowhere near  campus – in  another part of the country.


A West Midlands Police spokesperson said: “Officers – some of them armed – were deployed to the campus today (February 17) as a precaution and for reassurance.

“No arrests were made in relation to the threat and enquiries into the hoax message are currently ongoing.”

Peter Dunn, press officer at the University said armed officers had attended the campus in search of ‘an individual’ they wished to speak to.

He added: “The circumstances they wished to speak to them about were not related to any of the national security matters being investigated by UK police forces.

“The police left the campus after making contact with the individual who was in fact not on campus but in a totally different region of the UK.”

Online Editions

Catch up on your local news by reading our e-editions on the Coventry Observer.

Recruitment

Find a career you'll love with our free career finder website.

Printing

We can provide all of your printing needs at competitive rates.

Subscribe

Receive a weekly update to your inbox by signing up to our weekly newsletter.