CNN offices and studios in New York were evacuated on Thursday night after a bomb threat was phoned in to the news network.
Police conducted a “comprehensive sweep-and-search” of the Time Warner building at 25 Columbus Circle, after receiving a threat made to a building housing CNN’s offices in Manhattan. The NYPD later issued an all-clear and said pedestrian traffic was reopened.
CNN said several fire alarm bells signalling an evacuation rang inside its newsroom shortly after 10:30 pm.
Staff evacuated the building and Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight” was taken off the air, with the network temporarily went to taped programming.
“We were told to evacuate the building and to do it as soon as possible. We grabbed what we could and got out of the building and now, we are standing outside of the building,” Lemon said.
CNN's New York offices and studios have been evacuated due to a phoned bomb threat, the company says. In the meantime, the network has gone to taped programming. https://t.co/4cR6kjgA20 pic.twitter.com/XqekxFfX0X
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 7, 2018
In a tweet, CNN’s Brian Stelter said the office had been evacuated.
“At 10:07pm a bomb threat was called into the Time Warner Center and the building was evacuated,” the NYPD wrote on Twitter. “The threat has not been substantiated at this time; we’re on scene performing a comprehensive sweep-and-search of the facility.”
In October, the building was partially evacuated after a suspicious package containing a crude pipe bomb was delivered to the company.