US Presswire: Kirby Lee
As many Texas Longhorns fans are hitting the road to Oxford, Mississippi to watch their team take on the Ole Miss Rebels tomorrow night, those remaining in Austin, Texas, have been asked to evacuate the 40 Acres–the name give to the University of Texas campus of over 50,000 students.
Earlier this morning, a man with a “Middle East accent” claiming to be working for Al Queda, called in multiple threats to the university’s administrative offices stating that he had placed bombs and explosives all across campus which were set to go off 90 minutes from the time of the phone call.
Ninety minutes have since passed, but school officials are handling the situation with extreme caution.
Shortly after receiving the call, the University sent text messages and tweets to its students telling them to evacuate all buildings and to stay as far away from campus as possible.
Security officials have searched campus and no bombs have been found.
Though many times these situations end up being a hoax, with all of the recent violent attacks our nation has had to endure over the last several years, school officials absolutely were right to take these threats seriously.
Sadly, The University of Texas isn’t unfamiliar with tragedy. In 1966, Austin was home of one of the most tragic incidents in American history, when gunman Charles Whitman opened fire from the top of the campus’s historic UT Tower, killing 14 people and injuring many 32 more.
It appears now that this incident does indeed appear to be a hoax, but we can never be careful enough in these situations. Hopefully, another tragedy has been averted.
