Bomb threat at City Hall

Candice Burke

Just after lunch this afternoon at around one-thirty p.m., business was halted at Belize City Hall and the staff and administrators were queued off to Mirab near the Tourism Village. The bomb threat at the City Hall came as no surprise to the staff because over the past two days, there have been four threats to reach the various offices. There were two threats delivered to the Commercial Center on Wednesday; and this morning, another threat yet again. But this afternoon, it was the City Hall that was the target of what eventually turned out to be a hoax threat. In both cases, traffic was rerouted in downtown Albert, Regent and North Front Streets. Businesses within the center and the offices at the City Council closed its doors and employees gathered outside nearby as the relative authorities made checks to secure the premises.  News Five was at the scene when the first threat occurred on Wednesday and today after the fourth for the month of May alone, we asked the City Administrator, Candice Burke, what has inspired the aggression to the CitCo.

Candice Burke, City Administrator

“Well we are not sure you know. It started I believe in February we had one. We had one in March. We had two yesterday at the commercial center, one today at the commercial center and one this afternoon here at the City Hall. We take all measures to provide security for our staff; we have our security manager, Mister Longsworth, who is on top of things. We’ve evacuate the buildings in all instances. We believe it is a hoax. We believe they are deliberately trying to disrupt work, but we have no real idea who it could be or why now. So that’s what we are looking at. The police came in all cases, the B.D.F. came; they gave us the all clear before we got back into the buildings but we are looking to see if we can have the calls traced. But really we don’t know why.”

Duane Moody

“Today’s one here at City Hall is the first here?”

Candice Burke

“It’s the first here at City Hall.”

Duane Moody

“And what time did that happen?”

Candice Burke

“It happened at one-thirty. Our PR Officer received the call. The guy just came on and said he is just calling to tell us that there is a bomb in the building, he is going to blow us up and hung up the phone. Similar to the calls made at the Commercial Center.”

Burke says that the council is at a loss as to what is the reason behind the threats.