E mail triggers evacuations canceled exams at Harvard

CAMBRIDGE The bomb scare at Harvard University today was triggered by an e mail warning that explosives had been planted in four buildings at the heart of the storied campus according to a law enforcement official.

At 2 44 p.m. the university announced that the Science Center the last of the four buildings had been deemed safe. Law enforcement officials had already combed through and cleared Thayer Hall a freshman dorm and Sever and Emerson halls two buildings that contain lecture halls.

Thayer Emerson and Sever are all located inside the ancient Harvard Yard section of the campus. The Science Center stands just outside the Yard.

According to the school s academic calendar final exams are scheduled for this week for undergraduates.

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Related Photos Map Evacuated buildings

College officials said they were working to identify and reschedule exams that were disrupted by evacuations of the buildings. Officials also planned to make an announcement about the impact on afternoon exams as soon as possible a university spokesman said in an e mail.

President Obama was briefed this morning about the events taking place at his alma mater a White House official said. Obama attended Harvard Law School which has its own campus near the Science Center and the Yard.

We continue to encourage the public to follow directions from the local officials. The White House will remain in touch with our federal state and local partners and the president will continue to receive briefings as needed the official said.

On the emergency alert section of its website Harvard first reported at 9 02 a.m. that there were unconfirmed reports of explosives at the building and asked people to evacuate. Officials also said on the site they were evacuating people out of an abundance of caution. ... Harvard s focus is on the safety of our students faculty and staff.

Waiting this morning at a police checkpoint in sub freezing weather freshman Michael Casciotti shivered in shorts and flip flops with only a sweater to keep him warm.

A fire alarm had rattled him out of bed in Thayer Hall around 9 a.m. and he went out into the hallway in his bare feet one of many bleary eyed students trying to process what they thought at the time was a routine fire drill.

I left all my stuff in there didn t have any clothes on so my friend gave me a sweater and flip flops said Casciotti who is from Pennsylvania.

Though Harvard announced the evacuation of only the four buildings Casciotti and others were led to believe they had to leave the area. At 11 a.m. he was waiting at a gate leading from busy Massachusetts Avenue into the Yard hoping to return to the area if not to his still evacuated dorm.

I m very cold. Kind of inconvenienced by this whole thing. But I understand why they do it and I m happy the university is keeping us safe he said.

Joe Palana a freshman from Rockland had just sat down to take a life sciences exam in Emerson Hall when the alarms went off with the exams not yet distributed.

We didn t get the university emergency e mail until after we evacuated so we were just standing around Oh when s the fire drill going to be over so we can take our exam Palana said.

Standing in the snow they learned they had to evacuate Emerson along with the three other buildings including Palana s dorm Thayer.

I can t go back to where I live and get all my stuff and I can t go back to my final where I also left some of my stuff so I m very displaced he said.

At first he and some friends decamped for an upperclassmen s dorm a few blocks from Harvard Yard.

I wasn t too concerned it probably is nothing but I had some friends that were pretty scared so they wanted to be not near the Yard just in case he said. By 11 40 a.m. though they were feeling reassured if cold.

Outside the Harvard Book Store across from the Yard Palana and his friends waved to a shirtless friend on the third floor of Wigglesworth another freshman dorm at the edge of the Yard just minutes after a US Homeland Security SUV had raced past sirens blaring.

Hey Adam You look not very cold Palana shouted across Massachusetts Avenue. It s not so warm out here.

Palana looked down at his phone and saw an update His exam had been rescheduled for a choice of 6 30 p.m. tonight or the third week of the spring semester.

His friend Emma Woo cringed the same day time conflicted with her chorus concert so she would have to study all over again after winter break. Dude that s the worst Palana said.

Oh God said Woo a freshman from Vancouver. This is so annoying.

Nathan Pflueger a graduate student had just arrived at his office at the Science Center when the alarm went off prompting a mass exodus.

My guess is someone is trying to cause mischief during finals week said Pflueger.

Rescheduling the exams will create difficulties he predicted. It s going to be chaos he said

Police closed streets in the area then reopened some. Shortly before noon Cambridge police reported that Oxford Street at Everett Street Quincy Street at Broadway Kirkland Street at Quincy remained closed.

We are certainly still actively engaged in looking but we are opening a couple of streets up said Cambridge Police Deputy Superintendent Steven DeMarco.

Visiting scholar Chung Hao was puzzled when he arrived at the Science Center.

Excuse me do you know what s going on with the Science Center asked Hao who has an office there.

Told that police were searching for possible explosives he replied Never mind. I take one day off.

Bomb squad and other officers from the State Police MBTA Transit Police and the Cambridge Boston and university police responded to the campus officials said. Cambridge firefighters were also at the scene. The university said federal agencies had also joined the probe.

The Cambridge public schools said that Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and The Baldwin School a high school and elementary school respectively located near the Harvard campus had been placed in a secure and hold mode meaning indoor recess at the Baldwin and on campus lunch at Rindge. No unknown persons will be allowed in the buildings and all doors will remain locked the school department said in a Facebook posting.

According to MBTA spokeswoman Kelly Smith Red Line service has not been disrupted but buses on Routes 1 68 and 69 are being diverted.

Transit Police swept the Harvard Square subway station but nothing was found Smith said late this morning.

Shortly after 11 30 a.m. UMass Boston received a phone tip of a person with a firearm on campus and the McCormack Building was evacuated. State Boston and campus police searched the building but found nothing university spokesman DeWayne Lehman said at about 12 30 p.m. He said there was no effect on the final exam schedule at the university.

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