Police and firefighters cordoned off roughly a six-block area downtown in response to a bomb scare at a 400 block Victoria Street bank Thursday morning just as commuters were making their way into work.
Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass did not identify the specific bank but other sources were saying it was the TD Canada Trust at the corner of Victoria and Fourth. A phone call warning of a bomb was received at 8:30 a.m.
"Emergency services were called to the area, set up a perimeter and evacuated dozens of businesses within at least a one-block radius, in some cases more than that," Douglass said when talking to media at the corner of Victoria and Third.
A bomb-sniffing dog and handler were to be sent in by mid-morning, once a two-hour window for sending anyone into the building has elapsed, and the area was expected to remain closed to traffic until at least noon.
The closed area has been subsequently shrunk slightly, Douglass said, and city workers were called out to put up traffic barricades and help relieve emergency personnel manning taped-off entries to the area.
The next steps will be determined based on what is or is not found during a search of the building, Douglass said. The RCMP's bomb squad is based in Vancouver.
"It will take a while to clear that building, it's not a small building and certainly if we find a device, it's going to be hours longer," Douglass said.
The scare comes just days after two bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 170 others. Douglass said there is no connection between the response in Prince George and the events on Monday.
"Our response isn't any different than it would've been two weeks ago, or certainly before the events in the U.S.," Douglass said. "This is standard protocol, we observed the protocol and are trying to stick to it as best we can."
A large number of police and firefighters were on the scene in Prince George.
"The majority of them [bomb scares] are false but we have to assume the worst and we're taking the necessary precautions to protect the public," Douglass said.
