Two TV Stations Evacuated After ‘Bomb Scare’

Headquarters of Tbilisi-based television stations Rustavi 2 TV and Imedi TV were evacuated on Thursday after the police said it received bomb alerts; both turned out to be false alarms.

Rustavi 2 TV’s headquarters was evacuated on Thursday morning; broadcasting continued without interruption as its noon news bulletin was aired from studios located in other building in Tbilisi.

Just few hours after the police said Rustavi 2 TV bomb scare was false, another Tbilisi-based channel, Imedi TV, was told by the police to evacuate its studios because of same reason of bomb alert. An anchor of Imedi TV’s news bulletin at 2pm told viewers she had to suspend the program because of evacuation.

In both cases employees were allowed back into their offices after headquarters of the both channels were inspected by the law enforcement officers.

The Interior Ministry said that the bomb threats in both cases were made via 112 emergency call center. Later on Thursday afternoon police said they arrested two persons, suspected of making false bomb scares.

The Georgian Parliament building in Kutaisi was evacuated twice in last two months, on July 26 and then again on September 6, because of bomb threat – both were false alarms.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement on September 12 that cases of false bomb scares have increased recently and for that reason it was planning to initiate legislative amendments to make punishment for this offense more severe.

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