Louisiana State University Evacuates Following Bomb Threat

(TheBlaze/AP) --  Thousands of students, professors and workers have been evacuated from Louisiana State University's main campus Monday following a bomb threat, school officials said.

The LSU Police Department is investigating the threat, the university said in a short statement.

Students and staff were sent text messages and a message was posted on the campus website advising, "A bomb threat has been reported on the LSU campus. Please evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible. Check lsu.edu for updates."

The evacuation was prompted by a threat phoned into 911 about 10:32 a.m., university spokeswoman Kristine Calongne said, adding that the caller didn't direct the threat to any specific area of the campus.

Though there are 30,000 students, professors and university employees located on the campus, it is not clear how many were present at the time of the threat.

"Monday ... is a very big class day, so I think the majority of that group was probably on campus at the time," Calongne speculated.

Classes have been canceled, as well as a previously scheduled press conference with head football coach Les Miles, WWL-TV in New Orleans reported.

By early afternoon Monday, the LSU campus was largely deserted with roads leading onto campus blocked by police. The major arteries heading away from campus were congested, packed with traffic.

Catherine Lacoste, an 18-year-old freshman and architecture major, said she received notification of the bomb threat through the emergency text message system while working in a studio on a project. She double-checked the information and then evacuated. She didn't seem worried about the threat, however.

"I'm going to go home, take a nap and hopefully campus will be open again when I wake up," Lacoste said.

Twitter user Aggi Ashagre similarly wrote: "Traffic all over campus!! We're trying to evacuate, but we're gridlocked. Worst evacuation plan #lsu..."

Capt. Doug Cain of the Louisiana State Police says state police bomb technicians are on the scene. They are reportedly are talking to their counterparts in states where university bomb threats were reported last week to determine whether there are similarities.

Campuses in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio were evacuated Friday after receiving bomb threats, but police found no explosives.

Calongne said she doesn't know of any other time the entire flagship university campus was evacuated.

"I've been at LSU since 1990 - if you count my student years - and I don't ever recall us having an evacuation of the whole campus," she said.

LSU System President William Jenkins added: “It was the only call to make...We hope it’s a hoax, but we can’t take that chance."

This is a breaking story.  Updates will be added.

(H/T: Twitchy)