COCHRANE— Cochrane RCMP were on scene at the Southland Transportation building on Griffin Road Monday (Oct. 26) after receiving a bomb threat to the building and one of the busses.
“In the early hours of today we were notified by employees of Southland Transportation that they had a fairly undefined threat to either one of the busses or one of the buildings here in Cochrane or in Calgary,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff of the Cochrane RCMP. “Officers responded and coordinated with Southland to ensure that there were no students left on the busses. All busses were then redirected back to the southland yard where officers have until right now, have continued to search the busses at the Southland yard proper for any indication of a device.”
The threat itself, Savinkoff said, is believed to have been made over one of the radio devices that Southland uses to communicate from its office to the busses.
“At this point, we think the threat was made on the radio system itself that Southland uses for communication between the busses,” he said.
How the individual accessed the radio system is still unclear as the investigation is ongoing, Savinkoff noted.
“I’m assuming based on my knowledge of those radios that you would basically have to have access to the bus and secondly, have power to the unit itself.”
At this point, Savinkoff said, it is too early to determine whether or not the threat was credible, but noted that there had been nothing unusual found aboard any of the busses that had been searched.
“As of yet, nothing has been located and we’re just about done our searches at this point,” he said. “Our officers have checked every inch of those busses so we can say credibly that there’s no threat to the busses themselves. I would expect that Southland will begin its normal practices transporting students this afternoon,” he said.
Savinkoff noted that they had roughly ten RCMP members coordinating with Southland to search the busses.
In response to the threat, the RCMP closed off a several block radius surrounding the Southland bus depot to limit the traffic in and out of the area.
Based on its risk assessment, the Cochrane RCMP chose not to evacuate the surrounding businesses, Savinkoff said.
Witnesses to the threat itself indicated that the voice sounded like an adult male.
Cochrane RCMP completed visually searching every Cochrane Southland transportation bus and facility in the mid-afternoon— No suspicious objects were located. Southland was cleared by RCMP to resume normal operations.
Cochrane RCMP continues to investigate.
