The Maine State House was evacuated on the first day of its 2024 legislative session due to a bomb threat made via email against the State House and other capitol buildings across the country.
“Capitol Police, State Police, Augusta Fire and Augusta Police investigating bomb threat at Maine State House. Maine is one of several states involved in a wide scale threat event,” said the Maine Capitol Police on X.
People inside the state house were told to leave or move into the neighboring Cross Office Building to wait as police investigated the threat.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that the bomb threats issued over email to multiple states are a hoax, but the threats have nevertheless led to the evacuation of multiple other states.
Montana, Mississippi, and Kentucky were also all evacuated following the threats.
The other states resumed operations as Maine police continue to investigate the situation.
Following the initial publication of this article, The Maine Department of Public Safety’s public information officer, Shannon Moss, issued a statement on the evacuation.
“The threat was discovered at approximately 1:45pm,” said Moss, “Two K9 teams from the Maine State Police Bomb Unit responded to clear the building. There were no explosives found and the threat was deemed a hoax.”
Cowardly, reckless, but powerful.