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Kenai Walmart evacuated following bomb threat

Published 10:55 pm Thursday, February 2, 2017

By Megan Pacer

Customers and employees stand in the parking lot of the former Lowe’s building after being evacuated from the Kenai Walmart on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017 in Kenai, Alaska. Local law enforcement officers responded to a bomb threat called in to the store around 12:30 p.m. and evacuated the building during their search. They found no explosive devices. (Megan Pacer/Peninsula Clarion)
Customers and employees stand in the parking lot of the former Lowe’s building after being evacuated from the Kenai Walmart on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017 in Kenai, Alaska. Local law enforcement officers responded to a bomb threat called in to the store around 12:30 p.m. and evacuated the building during their search. They found no explosive devices. (Megan Pacer/Peninsula Clarion)

The Kenai Walmart was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a bomb threat was called in to the store.

At about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, “the Kenai Walmart received two phone calls from an individual reporting to have planted bombs inside the store,” according to a Kenai Police Department release. “The caller requested a sum of money to be paid or the bombs would be detonated.”

Kenai police responded to the store along with the Kenai Fire Department and Alaska State Troopers. They evacuated both the building and the Walmart parking lot, said Lt. Ben Langham with the Kenai Police Department.

“A sweep of the store was conducted by law enforcement officers and no explosive devices were located,” according to the release.

Langham said the evacuation was relatively quick and that troopers were called to assist in controlling the flow of traffic out of the store and to keep people from entering it while it was evacuated.

Walmart was preparing to reopen around 2 p.m. following the sweep by law enforcement, Langham said.

The case is still under investigation.

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.

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