Staff at the United States consulate in Durban were evacuated on Thursday morning after a bomb threat, KwaZulu-Natal police reported.
Spokesman Superintendent Vish Naidoo said Durban emergency services received an anonymous call around 9am indicating a bomb had been planted in the Old Mutual building, where the consulate is housed, in the inner city.
The male caller said the explosive would detonate at 2pm.
Naidoo said four police sniffer dogs went through the building but nothing was found.
”At the moment we are treating this incident as a hoax and police are on standby in case something of this nature happens again,” he said.
Naidoo said by midday the situation was back to normal and workers had returned to their offices.
The bomb threat came only hours after the US opened its campaign against Iraq, in a limited strike aimed at the Gulf nation’s president Saddam Hussein and his leadership structures. – Sapa