Waterford city buildings evacuated amid hoax bomb alert

A number of buildings had to be evacuated in Waterford’s city centre on Thursday afternoon after an anonymous phone call was made claiming two bombs were set to explode.

The call was made to gardaí­ at about 12.10pm and the emergency services were immediately despatched to The Mall area, with hundreds of people told to leave buildings in the area.

The caller said bombs had been placed in the Theatre Royal and the adjacent Waterford City and County Council offices and were due to go off at 1pm and 1.20pm.

Those premises were among several to be evacuated, including the popular House of Waterford Crystal across the road.

The street itself was sealed off by gardaí­ who carried out an examination of the area. Nothing suspicious was found in any of the relevant buildings.

The Mall area was reopened before 3pm, with gardaí satisfied the bomb call was a hoax.

An investigation has been launched to try to establish who made the call.