Jewish organizations across Canada, including in Regina, were on high alert after a bomb threat was sent out this morning.
B’nai Brith Canada says more than 100 Jewish institutions received an identical email at 5 a.m. ET threatening explosions.
The email sent to organizations states: “We placed many explosives inside your building. They are placed in black backpacks.”
Police forces in Toronto and Ottawa determined the situation to be “low risk” after extensive searches were conducted at hospitals included in the threat.
Regina police were also involved in the search at the Beth Jacob Synagogue. Deputy police chief Lorilee Davies says nothing suspicious was found during their search.
“Our officers did a sweep of the building to ensure that it was safe,” Davies said. “There wasn’t anything that struck our officers as being suspicious in terms of something that would be an explosive.”
Regina’s Beth Jacob Synagogue executive director, who Global News’ agreed to not publish their name for safety concerns says from the beginning it felt like some sort of prank.
“Because the email was sent to synagogues across Canada, the email address itself and some of the wording in the email all kind of gave us the feeling it wasn’t a real bomb threat but a prank,” he said.
“But we took it seriously, contacted the police and worked on taking precautions.”
The executive director said they had never received any sort of threat at their location before.
“I’m hoping it stays that way,” he said. “You never want to find yourself in the centre of a situation like that… it is quite scary and overwhelming. It kind of shakes you.”
Davies said while there hasn’t been anything suspicious found across Canada, the situation is very disturbing.
“The fact that there were hundreds of bomb threats taking place across the country, and knowing that there was an impact here in our city, definitely brings to home how global events can really affect our local citizens,” Davies said.