A mall in northern Idaho has been evacuated after a caller threatened gun violence and claimed there was a bomb, according to local officials. Police said there was no information showing the threat was legitimate but were treating it as real out of caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident began at about 3:50 p.m. on Friday when a person called the administrative office at Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho, about 30 miles east of Spokane, Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The caller threatened gun violence against the mall and also said he had a bomb, according to Coeur d\u2019Alene Police Chief David Hagar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers from multiple agencies responded to the mall and began evacuating the building. Police were also checking vehicles in the parking lot while the response remained ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no information to show that this is a legitimate threat but out of an abundance of caution, we are treating it as if it were real,\u201d Hagar said. A safety alert sent during the response asked the public to avoid the area while officers were at the mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hagar said there had been a high number of \u201cswatting\u201d calls in Idaho recently and that Friday\u2019s threat may be related. Swatting refers to false emergency reports intended to trigger a large police response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A mall in northern Idaho has been evacuated after a caller threatened gun violence and claimed there was a bomb, according to local officials. Police said there was no information showing the threat was legitimate but were treating it as real out of caution. The incident began at about 3:50 p.m. on Friday when a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[276,3577,1011,4452,1195,151],"class_list":["post-66579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-bomb-threat","tag-coeur-dalene-idaho","tag-idaho","tag-mass-shooting-threat","tag-swatting","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"\n