Toronto and Mississauga police respond to bomb threats as cities in Canada and the United States face similar threats

Police in the Greater Toronto Area reacted Thursday to several bomb threats in the area, including one near the King metro station that evacuated the station. A number of bomb threats have also been made in cities in North America.

The metro service was initially suspended between Bloor-Yonge and Union stations, but resumed.

Toronto police said "several" bombings were launched across the city, without revealing the location.

Peel police said they had received several threats, targeting businesses and demanding payments in Bitcoin to reveal the location of the bombs.

"They have no legitimacy," said Sarah Patton, spokeswoman for Peel Police. "These are frauds."

Investigators ask anyone with information to contact the police.

In Calgary, police said they responded to several bomb threats and said similar threats were being received in North America.

Toronto police are working with forces in other Canadian cities that have also received threats, said spokesman Allyson Douglas-Cook.

Douglas-Cook said there was nothing to suggest that the threats were credible, but the police would continue to treat them as such.

New York police said the threats he had received had been "electronically sent" to locations in the city and that it linked these messages to other reports reported throughout the country.

"We are currently monitoring several bomb threats that have been sent electronically to different parts of the city," the New York Police Department's Counter-Terrorism Office said in a message posted on Twitter. "These threats are also reported to other places throughout the country (and) are NOT considered credible at this time."

As the news of the threat messages spread on Thursday, the FBI said in a statement that it was "aware of recent bomb threats in cities across the country and we remain in touch with our partners in charge of law enforcement to badist them As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to report suspicious activities that pose a threat to public safety without delay. "

Other law enforcement agencies and academic institutions have echoed the message of the New York police. A Chicago police spokesman said the city had received threats similar to those others had received, but said there was "no high threat level" in the city.

In the District of Columbia, police said they responded to a dozen bomb threats Thursday afternoon Thursday, all made by email and related to similar threats nationwide. All the threats in the district proved false, said a spokesman for the Washington police. These calls, most of which took place between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm, resulted in the closure of several streets and the evacuation of buildings while the police searched the floors.

Many threats appeared to have targeted live private companies. Many of these businesses were located downtown or in other areas with heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic; threats and evacuations disrupted the main streets.

The San Francisco police said they responded to threats received around 10 am local time throughout the city, noting that there were "similar threats" in "several other US cities."

Police in Cedar Rapids, the second largest city in Iowa, said that businesses in the area had received "what appears to be a robotic e-mail saying that there is a threat to the bomb for their business unless they pay Bitcoins money ". But, the ministry added, "found no credible evidence that these emails are genuine."

The media also reported that they had to evacuate their buildings because of threats. The Park Record building in Utah was evacuated after staff members received the message, the outlet reported.

The News and Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, also announced that it had been forced to evacuate its building. Raleigh police said they reacted to a threat that, according to the newspaper, had been made by email shortly before 1:15 pm A spokeswoman for the department said the police "searched and cleaned the place."

Academic institutions were not immune. A spokeswoman for Pennsylvania State University said the campus police, as well as the FBI, "were investigating a message received by people at various locations on campus and in the state." She stated that the message on campus had been e-mailed to eight buildings or facilities there.

"At present, police say the threat appears to be part of a national hoax, but an investigation is under way," the spokeswoman said.

The University of Washington said it "investigated threatening emails sent to individuals on campus" and scanned buildings before campus police "worried about security." ". The school said the FBI had "indicated that email was not a credible threat."

-With Washington Post files

Stefanie Marotta is a leading news reporter working in the Star radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @StefanieMarotta