Three courthouses were evacuated or closed on Thursday morning in response to emailed bomb threats. Two have since reopened, and the third is scheduled to reopen Friday.
The Cumberland County Courthouse was evacuated at about 10:15 a.m. after it received a bomb threat in an email, according to Brad Nadeau, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Department.
Police swept the courthouse with bomb-sniffing dogs “out of an abundance of caution” and found nothing, Nadeau said Thursday.
Additionally, the York Judicial Center and the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta were closed for the day and searched, the State of Maine Judicial Branch said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
According to the judicial branch, employees received “an email containing a general statement that bombs had been planted in or around courthouses in the state. It did not identify any specific location.”
Both the Cumberland County Courthouse and the Capital Judicial Center reopened later on Thursday. The York Judicial Center is scheduled to reopen Friday.
All other courthouses were checked for security risks, and no explosives were found, the judicial branch said.
The courthouse threats come a day after a hoax bomb threat that led to an evacuation at the State House in Augusta. Legislatures in at least seven other states received similar bomb threats on Wednesday.
BDN writer Ethan Andrews contributed reporting to this story.