Q8NRI.com

Kuwait: The Sultan Center (TSC) Salmiya received a bomb threat around noon on Monday. The officials at the Sultan Center immediately asked everyone to leave the shopping center once the threat was received, including the staff.

Ten minutes after the threat was received, police, the firefighters and paramedics arrived at the supermarket, evacuating the area and blocking off entrances to the street in front of TSC.

Police then conducted a search of the supermarket and the premises around the market with bomb?sniffing dogs. Within an hour the threat was announced as a hoax and the police lifted the street barricade, allowing TSC to return to normal work.

Al Watan Daily attempted to speak with officials of TSC, but they requested not to make any statements, referring Al Watan Daily to the Ministry of Interior, the government institute in charge of handling the issue.

However, some junior level workers at the supermarket were willing to speak to Al Watan Daily. A Filipino stocker said, "We don”t know how we received the threat, but what I know is that they asked us all to leave around noon. We waited in the street for almost an hour and then they asked us to return to work."

Another employee added, "When we received the threat, people were really terrified and worried, and they began running out to the street, leaving their trolleys full of stuff. The strange thing is that after it was announced that the supermarket was safe to enter, everyone came back running and continued shopping. TSC was evacuated within minutes, and after that it was filled with people within minutes also."

A third employee at TSC noted, "This is not the first time we have heard about bomb threats in the area. Two weeks ago, there was another bomb threat in Laila Gallery, and again it was a false threat. I don”t find it funny to threaten people."

Nancy Oteifa