A Cal State Northridge student’s fear that someone had planted a bomb in his car triggered a campus emergency today, prompting the evacuation of more than 100 people.
A male student reported around noon that he believed his car, parked in a lot on campus, had been rigged with a bomb, said Vance Peterson, vice president of university advancement.
“He said he is affiliated with a gang, and he fears retaliation from a rival gang,” Peterson said. “This is not an attack on the university.”
The Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad was dispatched to the scene.
As a precautionary measure, Peterson said university officials activated a mass communication emergency system to alert faculty, staff and students through phone calls, e-mails and text-messaging.
About 100 occupants of a nearby university preschool and dozens more at a lab facility were moved to other locations, Peterson said.
“It’s being treated seriously," he said. "If true, it could endanger people on the campus.”
— Ann M. Simmons