A series of anonymous bomb threats phoned in to authorities across Russia have continued with new threats in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Moscow police sources say more than 9,000 people were evacuated from eight schools in the Russian capital on September 14 as a result of anonymous bomb threats.
Hundreds of people were also evacuated from several shopping malls in St. Petersburg on September 14 following anonymous threats by telephone.
Since September 10, similar calls have triggered mass evacuations at schools, malls, theaters, and universities in many cities and towns across Russia.
Bombs have not been discovered in any of the cases.
The first case to be reported was on September 10 at the mayor's office in Omsk, when an unknown caller told authorities there was a bomb in the building.
On September 13, Moscow police sources say more than 100,000 people were evacuated from about 70 buildings after at least 65 anonymous bomb threats.
Investigations have been launched by the Chelyabinsk regional police into what police spokeswoman Olga Shterk called a "spam attack."
"The phone calls were made via the Internet and therefore it will be difficult to locate the site from where the calls were made," Shterk said.
