Bomb scare at Port of Spain magistrates court slows traffic downtown

Drivers passing through downtown Port of Spain on Monday morning slowed to a crawl as police and fire officers re-routed traffic away from the Port of Spain Magistrates Court because of a bomb threat.

Police said Port of Spain Operational Command Centre officers received a report of the threat at the court at around 8.58 am and ordered several units to investigate.

Officers of the Port of Spain Task Force, the Special Branch, the Bomb Disposal Unit with sniffer dogs, and the Capital City Patrol Unit visited with fire officers and evacuated the court and surrounding buildings.

Police also evacuated  several law chambers near the court. Police and fire officers also re-routed traffic away from Duke Street, St Vincent Street and Knox Street.

After about an hour and a half of searching, nothing was found at the court.

Workers from the surrounding buildings were allowed to re-enter their offices once police assured it was safe.

Some workers, who stood and waited for the police to finish searching the court, said they were more annoyed by the bomb threat than afraid, especially after a light drizzle began.

One man, who said he worked at one of the evacuated buildings, said he had just got to work when he was ordered out of his office by security guards.

"This is not the kind of thing you expect as you reach in work on a Monday morning. This is little children thing, and I hope they find whoever did it and jail them."

One woman who was stuck in traffic said she was also irritated by the inconvenience as she had just dropped off her daughter to school nearby.

Officers from the Central Police Station are continuing enquiries.

Section 21 (2) of the Anti-Terrorism Act says a person commits a crime under the act if he "communicates any information which he knows or believes to be false with the intention of inducing in a person anywhere in the world a belief that a noxious substance or other noxious thing or a lethal device or a weapon of mass destruction is likely to be present, whether at the time the information is communicated or later, in any place."

Someone convicted of an offence is liable to imprisonment for 15 years.