Lawrence Berkeley Lab in Emeryville Evacuated Over Bomb Threat

Update at 4:00 p.m: The building reopened at 1 p.m., UC Berkeley Lt. Eric Tejada tells KQED's Rachel Dornhelm. No bomb was found, and Tehada says the department is trying to find out who called in the threat and why.

Update from the Bay Area News Group:

A biotechnology building that typically houses about 6,200 employees had only one occupant late Wednesday morning -- a bomb disposal technician who went inside wearing protective gear just before 10:30 a.m.

Officials were responding to a bomb threat called in about 7 a.m., threatening a laboratory facility run by Lawrence Berkeley Lab in partnership with several other national laboratories. Hours after the threat against the EmeryStation East building at 5885 Hollis St. was received, authorities pushed a safety perimeter further away from the building as the bomb tech went inside.

EMERYVILLE, Calif. (AP) Authorities have evacuated an Emeryville office building used by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory after a reported bomb threat.

University of California, Berkeley Police Lt. Eric Tejada said lab officials notified police about the threat around 7 a.m. Wednesday. Officers were sweeping the building and have brought in five bomb-sniffing dogs.

Tejada would not say how the threat came in.

UC Berkeley runs the lab under a contract with the federal government. The lab's main campus is in Berkeley.

Tejada says in addition to UC Berkeley Police, officers from the Department of Homeland Security and the Emeryville and Oakland police are all at the scene.