Chattanooga Pulse

It was a busy Thursday afternoon downtown as both buildings of the Tennessee Aquarium were evacuated after an unknown person phoned in a bomb threat from a nearby payphone.  Aquarium security personnel quickly contacted the Chattanooga Police Department and began an immediate evacuation of the buildings.

Communications Manager Thom Benson said that the evacuation went very smoothly, and the bomb squad was on the scene in a manner of minutes.  Using bomb dogs, the buildings were thoroughly searched and nothing dangerous was discovered.

“We take every threat seriously,” Benson said. “I want to commend the security staff of the Aquarium for their quick response as well as how calmly all of our visitors reacted.”

The threat shut down the entire Aquarium plaza for several hours as the bomb squad made several passes through the buildings.  Emergency personnel, who have trained and drilled for just such situations, said the response by all the various agencies went very smoothly and was well coordinated.

Crime scene investigators had cordoned off the payphone used to call in the threat, dusting it for fingerprints and looking for other forensic evidence in an attempt to discover the identity of the person who called in the threat.