A large police force is currently deployed in downtown Linz. A bomb threat is said to have been received at the Academic High School on Spittelwiese. Matura work that was currently taking place had to be interrupted.
The school had already been successfully evacuated and the operation was completed after eight minutes. For now, little is known about the background to the threat. All available police forces were ordered to the city center. Bomb-sniffing dogs and Cobra are on duty. Matura exams for Croatian, Hungarian, Slovenian and Spanish were supposed to take place in the high school on Wednesday, but these were interrupted after the threat was received shortly before 10 a.m. The students were taken to the promenade park near the Linzer Landhaus. Residents asked not to leave their houses. A large area of the Spittelwiese area is currently cordoned off, and residents of the neighboring houses were asked to stay in their houses using a megaphone. A Sparkasse Oberösterreich building was also evacuated and the employees were taken to Bethlehemstrasse. Lisa Sigl, hotel manager of the Black Bear on Herrenstrasse, told the “Krone”: “Our hotel is currently cordoned off, but fortunately most of the guests have already checked out beforehand. But of course the lunch business suffers. We are taking advantage of the opportunity and are therefore taking inventory.”Threat received by the Landhaus police stationThe threat was apparently received by the Landhaus police station and was specifically directed against the Akademisches Gymnasium. 377 people were in the building at the time, 250 were taken to Landhauspark and the rest were directed to Bethlehemstrasse. The search of the house is currently in full swing and is expected to take a total of around two to three hours. Edwin Bermoser, store manager of “Clothes Make People” on Herrenstrasse, started work at 9:45 a.m. The police operation started at 10 a.m. “This is the first bomb threat I have witnessed. I have no fear or concern.”
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