University of S. California evacuates buildings after bomb threat

A bomb threat at the University of Southern California (USC), a leading private research university located in Los Angeles, caused an evacuation from multiple buildings of the university campus on Thursday, authorities said.

"Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Sample Hall and Wallis Annenberg Hall are being evacuated due to a bomb threat," the university said in a tweet Thursday afternoon, urging people to stay away from the area.

According to the university's official Twitter account, the Los Angeles Police Department and the USC Department of Public Safety conducted a search in the area. About half an hour later, law enforcement agencies determined the evacuated buildings are safe and the related buildings were reopened.

Around 49,500 students were enrolled at the USC in the 2021-22 academic year, including over 6,300 from Chinese mainland.

Multiple Ivy League schools in the East Coast of the U.S., including Yale, Columbia, Cornell and Brown, had also received bomb threats and were forced to warn students to evacuate campus buildings earlier this month. U.S. law enforcement agencies didn't deem any of the threats credible.