Schools in Australian capital city evacuated due to bomb threat

CANBERRA -- A number of schools in the Australian capital city of Canberra have been forced to evacuate after receiving a bomb threat call earlier Tuesday, the Australian Captial Territory (ACT) police said on its Twitter account.

As a precaution, the schools were evacuated before midday Tuesday, the second day after the new school year started this week.

"Police are investigating the veracity of threats received by a number of ACT schools today. The schools are being evacuated as a precaution," the ACT police.

Lanyon High School, Forest Primary and Kingsford Smith School in Holt were first reported to have been temporarily evacuated. Two more schools, Richardson Primary School and Miles Franklin Primary School, were then added to the list of forced evacuation.

In the following hour or so, the schools have been cleared and students returned to school to resume their classes.

Meanwhile, at least three schools in Queensland were similarly evacuated on Tuesday following similar bomb threats.

On Monday, nine schools in New South Wales (NSW) state were in lockdown as precautionary police operations took place following an anonymous bomb threat.

Last Friday, several schools in NSW and Victoria received similar bomb threats which had been confirmed to be a hoax.

Victoria Police put out a statement Friday night saying "Victoria Police can confirm it is treating the threatening phone calls received by a number of Victorian schools today as a hoax."

"We are satisfied that there are no imminent threats to schools and that the threats are not terrorism related."

Police across the country have reiterated that making threatening phone calls is a serious criminal offense and the incidents will be fully investigated.