The Los Angeles Valley College campus was evacuated Wednesday after “several threats” were received, and a sheriff’s bomb squad was deployed to the campus, which was declared safe after several hours.
Authorities received a call about 2:30 p.m. regarding an unattended item that was possibly suspicious found on campus, Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
The college, in the Valley Glen neighborhood, was working with law enforcement to “validate” several threats that had been made, according to an alert that was both emailed to students and posted to Facebook.
College President Erika Endrijonas said three phone calls were received within an hour and a half describing threats that prompted a decision to evacuated the campus immediately. Suspicious items were found during a search of the campus, she said.
The school asked students to “please leave the campus immediately and calmly.”
“This is not a drill,” the email stated.
Aerial video from Sky5 showed at least seven black-and-white patrol cars parked on campus just before 3:30 p.m. A sheriff’s bomb squad truck arrived and a robot was deployed on the campus, Sky5 video showed.
The robot approached and removed an object that looked like a sandbag at the base of a temporary fence. A bomb squad member then investigated the site shortly before 4 p.m., and the robot did not appear to fire on the bag in any attempt to defuse it.
A Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said a suspicious package was found at a construction site on campus.
By early evening, sheriff’s officials said the scene was cleared.
It was not immediately known what was found on campus.
Evening classes on campus were canceled.
KTLA’s Kareen Wynter and Scott Williams contributed to this article.