Shopping mall in Beijing reopened after bomb hoax

Photo shows the locked door of Longde Plaza. [Photo: the Beijing News]

(ECNS)-- A shopping mall in thenorth of rural Beijing restored business after being evacuated due to a bomb hoax in the morning, the official account of Beijing Public Security Bureau on Sina Weibo said Thursday.

At midday, many police cars were spotted around Longde Plaza, a large shopping mall near Lishuiqiao Station, and all the doors were being guarded, the Beijing News reported.

A commercial tenant at the mall said someone received a bomb threat around 10:30 am, so they all ran out. Then police came and evacuated the mall, the tenant said.

At round 4:30 pm, the official account of Beijing Public Security Bureau on Sina Weibo said that staff of the Carrefour Supermarket in the mall called police that they received a threatening E-mail. The sender demanded 50,000 yuan ($8.604) and threatened that a bomb had been set in the supermarket, it added.

The police has searched the mall and found no explosives, the Weibo account said, adding the blockade has been lifted.

The area around the mall is a large suburban residential neighborhood in northern Beijing.