Burnaby RCMP say a reported threat that prompted a partial evacuation of the Metrotown Mall on Wednesday evening was false.
Numerous shoppers took to social media Wednesday to say they’d been ordered to leave the building. Several said they were told it was a “medical emergency” in the area of the food court.
Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Mike Kalanj told Global News police were sweeping the food court area of the mall following reports of a threat in the facility.
He said there was no indication of an “active threat” or injuries, but that police were required to take the report seriously.
Lana Shparberg told Global News she was doing volunteering with Rotary Coats for Kids in the main courtyard below the food court, when there was a commotion around 5:30 p.m.
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“All of a sudden there’s just this rush of people, like people just kind of coming from the direction of The Bay,” she said.
“So I walk over to the security officer and I said, ‘So what’s going on?’ And he says, ‘Well, there’s a medical emergency and we’re evacuating the side of the mall.'”
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Shparberg said she saw numerous RCMP officers on site, and that the evacuation appeared to have only affected a portion of the mall in the area of The Bay and the food court.
She said none of the police she saw had their guns drawn
“It just seemed like a lot of police and a lot of like going on for a medical emergency,” she said.
The incident comes just over a year after the mall was evacuated in what police later said they believed was a “swatting” incident, in which someone had called in a bogus emergency.
Kalanj said police weren’t ruling out a potential connection between the two phony reports.
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