Georgia College evacuated due to bomb threat

The campus of Georgia College and State University was evacuated Thursday afternoon due to a bomb threat, police said.

Students who live on campus at the Milledgeville university were advised to gather at First Baptist Church, located at the corners of Liberty and Franklin Streets, to the south of campus. Those who live off campus were allowed to return home.

“Campus is closed for the remainder of the day,” the university stated on Twitter. “This includes all classes, meetings, and activities.

Alerts were sent to student by phone calls, text messages and loud speakers on campus, and sirens sounded, Meredith Wilson, the mother of a sophomore at the university, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Wilson, of Roswell, said her daughter didn’t answer her phone initially because she was in class. But the class was cut short as word of the evacuation quickly spread, Wilson said.

Parents were also alerted of the bomb threat, Wilson said.

“That’s what really concerned my husband and I was that the entire campus was evacuated, not just a particular building or dorm,” Wilson said. “It was just unnerving and in this day and age, you have to take every one seriously.”

Around 4:20 p.m., the university said the on-campus residence halls had been cleared, and that dining services would be begin at 5 p.m.

Chief Scott Beckner with the university’s police department requested the GBI’s assistance with the investigation, a GBI spokesman said.

— Please return for updates.