Durban — Hillcrest High School pupils and staff west of Durban had to be hurriedly evacuated from the school premises following a bomb scare phone call on Thursday.
In a statement, the school administration office said it received a telephone call warning of a bomb that had been planted inside the school premises.
In response, the school management sounded sirens, ordering a mass evacuation of the pupils and the staff to a safe area, but the call turned out to be a hoax.
“All learners and staff were moved to the safety of the field, a safe distance from all school buildings,” read the statement.
The school said police were called to the scene, along with the school’s security provider and emergency medical response personnel.
It said pupils were monitored on the field by staff before an alert was sent out to notify the parents of the situation, adding that police services restricted road access around the school premises, while the bombs’ unit was combing the school building with sniffer dogs.
“Following a thorough search by SAPS and the dog squad, the building was cleared and declared safe for all to return,” the statement concluded.
The SAPS spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo, said police in Hillcrest were investigating a case of contravention of section 27 (A1) of the Explosives Act 26 of 1956, following an incident in which a call was allegedly made to a certain school in Hillcrest stating that there were bombs in the school.
“The necessary role-players were called to the scene, the premises were searched and it was discovered that it was a hoax,” said Ngcobo.
Speaking on behalf of parents, the school governing body chairperson Byron Creed praised the swift action of the police, which he said led to a positive outcome. The Education Department had not commented at the time of publication.
This was the second bomb threat in Durban in the space of a few days. On Monday, police began hunting down suspects who “planted” explosive devices at a Durban North mosque.
Although police preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects might have thrown the devices inside the mosque while running away from the patrolling security guards, the mosque leadership said CCTV footage showed that the suspects had spent 45 minutes planting the devices in the shrubs inside the premises which proved that the intention was to bomb the mosque.
The mosque has since tightened security around the property.
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