No explosives were found in a comprehensive search inside the Shinsegae Department Store in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, on Tuesday, as the online bomb threat made earlier in the day turned out to have been a hoax.
The South Korean police at around 3:59 p.m. wrapped up the search, confirming that no explosives were inside one of the largest department stores in the country. Officials are tracking down the writer of the false threat, based on the IP address of the bomb threat uploaded on an online community DC Inside.
At around 12:36 p.m., an anonymous post claimed that the writer had installed explosives on the first floor the department stores in central Seoul.
"Don't dare go to the Shinsegae main store today. I installed explosives on the 1st floor for real. It will go off at 3 p.m. today," the post claimed, but the supposed explosion did not occur at that time.
The post has been deleted as of Tuesday afternoon.
Officials of the Seoul Namdaemun Police Station evacuated 4,000 people -- all store personnel and customers -- from the building, controlled the traffic around the area, and checked the building for the explosives. Police received the report of the bomb threat at around 1:47 p.m.
The department store officials said they will seek legal actions against whoever is responsible for the fake threat.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
