Bomb Threat Closes|Hawaii Courthouses

HONOLULU (CN) - A bomb threat shut down two Hawaii courthouses Thursday.

An early morning 911 call brought Honolulu Police and a bomb squad to a suspicious package outside the Oahu First Circuit Courthouse.

The unidentified 911 caller said the package was set to detonate at noon.

Police and a K-9 team were dispatched at 10 a.m. to the courthouse and doused the package with a water cannon. It was found to contain plant fertilizer and a galvanized pipe, according to reporters from the Star-Advertiser newspaper.

The courthouse is known in Hawaiian as Ka'ahumanu Hale.

U.S. Marshals at the Hawaii Federal Building and Courthouse, across the street from the First Circuit Courthouse, told Courthouse News that sheriff's deputies searched a man's bags and found "credible materials."

The marshals, who could not speak on the record, did not elaborate.

The Honolulu Federal Courthouse is in the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Building-

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway closed the federal building to the public for the day.

The First Circuit Court was evacuated while sheriff's deputies inspected the package. Employees were allowed back in at 11:30 a.m., and the building was reopened to the public at 1 p.m.

An investigation is in the works.

Questions from Courthouse News were referred to the Department of Public Safety and to Sheriff Shawn Tsuha, who were unavailable for comment.

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