On April 8th at approximately 8:28 am Port Moody Police received a call from a male stating he had planted 3 pipe bombs in the school and that he had weapons and was in a car in the parking lot.

Upon notification, school staff immediately implemented their lockdown procedure while PMPD officers searched the area and determined that the caller was not actually on school property.

Students and staff were quickly and efficiently relocated outside to a safe zone secured by PMPD officers.

Lower Mainland RCMP K9 teams along with a K9 unit from Metro Vancouver Transit Police searched the school along with members of PMPD>

At approximately 9:58 am, once the school was declared safe, students, staff and teachers were able to return to classes.

At this point, it is believed that this was the latest in a series of so-called “swatting” calls that have been occurring throughout the Tri-Cities over the past week or so.

These callers typically state that a violent crime involving weapons is occurring at that moment and direct police to a specific address.  Upon police attendance, it is discovered that no such offence is actually taking place.

These calls often appear to originate out of country and via the Internet.

Even though today’s event turned out to be false, it highlighted the excellent working relationship between School District #43’s staff, its administration and PMPD.  An incident such as the one that occurred today shows the importance of a seamless and practised response by all to police emergencies in our schools.

The origin of these alarming false reports is under investigation.