FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Investigates Fake Bomb At UCSD Lab

December 6, 2007

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According to news reports the lab conducts animal research, leading to some speculation that animal rights groups or individuals may be involved. It isn’t clear if the fake bomb was placed in the facility as a hoax, or as a warning/threat.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating after a fake bomb, made to look like the real thing, was found yesterday in a research building at UCSD’s medical school, authorities said.

An anonymous caller to the campus at 10:26 a.m. threatened to detonate a bomb inside a biomedical lab building, FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said.

After the call was made, a campus employee found a suspicious device on the first floor of the four-story Leichtag Family Foundation Biomedical Research Building. UCSD and San Diego police were called in, along with the Fire-Rescue Department, Metro Arson Strike Team, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force responded because the target of the threat is a research facility, Foxworth said. Animal research is conducted at the medical school, but Foxworth declined to say whether the bomb threat was related to that type of research.

Authorities evacuated the Leichtag building and seven others affiliated with the medical school, a campus spokeswoman said. No other devices were found.

A bomb squad X-rayed the device about 3 p.m. and determined it did not pose a threat, said Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. Luque said the device looked real.
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