Manhattan's Mercy College reopens after evacuation over bomb threat

By
Haseem uz Zaman
Students arrive at the Mercy College. Image via Mercy College Instagram account.
 

Mercy College is set to reopen Thursday following an evacuation that was ordered last Wednesday night over an alleged bomb threat, its Twitter account said in an update.

The institution "will resume operations tomorrow, Thursday, October 5, 2017", the tweets stated, adding that "appropriate authorities evaluated the situation and approved reopening" the campus.

An evacuation was ordered late Wednesday night at the Manhattan, New York college due to an alleged bomb threat, the institution's social media accounts and local reports had indicated.

The school's officials had received "an unsubstantiated letter with the [bomb] threat", NBC New York had said citing the local police department.

In an "emergency update", the college, through its Twitter account, had advised students and any other person present in or around Manhattan campus — on West 35th Street, near Penn Station — to leave the premises and that "the building is closed until further notice".

Authorities and college officials were "continuing to monitor the situation", one of the tweets had said. In addition, evening classes at Mercy College were also cancelled.

When Geo.tv reached out to Mercy College for further information at that time, Catherine Cioffi, JD — the director of public & community relations and marketing at Mercy College — reiterated that evacuation was still in order and all classes for the evening had been cancelled.

"I cannot reveal any more or anything regarding the threat [level] right now, but police are still on the scene," Cioffi had said.

On the other hand, Midtown Precinct South — the closest to Mercy College — declined to comment on the matter when Geo.tv reached out to them over the phone.