Hoax bomb scare spreads panic in Kuwait school

Kuwait City: Four women needed medical treatment after an alleged bomb threat spread panic in a private school in Kuwait.

Classes on all levels were suspended and the school in Naqra was evacuated shortly after the administration was warned in a telephone call that a bomb would go off there. The ensuing panic caused four women to faint, police and health sources said.

An explosives squad which searched the buildings and facilities of the school said that they did not find "any suspicious devices" and that the threat was unfounded.

Police believed that the call was made by someone keen on disrupting the school exams and pledged to arrest him. Initial investigations revealed that the call was made through a landline telephone from a shop.

Education authorities said that they would assist in the identification of the culprit and started drawing a list of the students who were not at school at the time of the phone call.

Officials said that they were sure that even though the caller spoke in English as he announced the bomb threat, he was an Arab national.

Kuwait this year has seen a series of hoax calls that targeted schools, public facilities and the Bourse.

One American national, a former resident of Kuwait, has recently admitted that he had made several bomb threat calls to express his frustration over a painful divorce from his Filipina wife.