By Ruzanna Khachatrian
Armenia’s Court of Appeals became on the Monday the latest target of false bomb alerts that seem to be becoming a regular occurrence in Yerevan. A statement by the national Police Service said the court judges and other staff were briefly evacuated from the building in the morning immediately after an unknown individual claimed to have planted a bomb there in a phone call to a nearby police station. It said security forces searched the building but found no explosive devices.
“As a result of the thorough search, nothing was found in the court building, after which the institution returned to its normal work,” the statement said. It added that the police launched a criminal investigation under a relevant article of the Armenian Criminal Code.
Dozens of teachers and other employees of a public school in Yerevan were evacuated after a false bomb alert on August 30. The incident occurred less than two months after a similar anonymous phone call forced the evacuation of employees of several government ministries located in a single building. Police quickly arrested at the time an elderly man reportedly suffering from a mental illness.