The California State University, Los Angeles campus was evacuated Thursday due to a bomb threat, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.
The Cal State LA Twitter account said they were closing the campus as of noon, Pacific time.
UPDATE: LAPD spokesman Richard French said the search concluded at about 2:30 p.m. PST, and no bomb was found, the AP reports.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Richard French told the Associated Press that the university received a phone call that said a bomb was on campus. The police said it was an anonymous tip that did not specify any particular building, KCAL 9 reports. The caller said the bomb would go off in two hours, the police told the Los Angeles Times.
LAPD spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa told the AP a bomb squad has been dispatched to the campus in the University Hills district of the city.
A KTLA producer tweeted a photo of cars leaving a campus parking lot:
KPCC reports several police helicopters were spotted flying over Cal State LA, while students attempted to flee the campus.
Jon Beaupre, a journalism professor at Cal State LA, told the AP the fire alarm went off at 12:15 p.m. in the middle of his lecture and the class followed normal evacuation procedures. When they arrived outside, they were told there was a bomb scare and the entire campus was being evacuated.
"That led to a mad dash, grabbing bags to get people out of here," Beaupre said. He estimated that the evacuation involved about 8,000 students.
"[It's] looking a little scary," Beaupre said to KPCC, adding that people are on edge due to the recent Boston bombings.
Beaupre said there was a traffic jam of evacuating cars. Student Vincent Fullerton tweeted about the traffic:
Several students and faculty members said they were still waiting for a text or email through the university's emergency notification system, despite a tweet Cal State LA sent shortly before 2 p.m. saying the university had "already sent out text messages and campuswide email notifications alerting the campus of the emergency," the Los Angeles Times reports.
University spokesman Paul Browning told the AP that the university will likely not reopen Thursday.
LA County High School for the Arts is located on the CSULA campus and was also evacuated, KPCC reports. They sent an email to parents that read: "We have instructed all students to go home by public transportation or carpool. If you are picking up your student you will have to pick them up on the perimeter of campus as CSULA Police will not allow us on campus."
Cal State LA is east of downtown LA and has about 20,000 students, though most aren't full-time, according to the AP.
This is a developing story.
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