Russian police early yesterday said they had received multiple bomb threats in the World Cup host city of Rostov-on-Don, causing bars and restaurants to be evacuated across the city.
“On June 26, police received a series of phone calls about explosives planted at locations in Rostov-on-Don,” local police said in a statement.
“Police forces made all the necessary checks and no dangerous objects were found,” the statement said. “Currently, all the venues are operating normally.”
Increasingly isolated on the global stage, Russia is keen to use the World Cup to project an image of stability and strength.
Authorities have vowed to host a safe event and any security incidents involving fans could jeopardize Moscow’s efforts.
A police officer at the Topos Congress-Hotel said that 16 venues had been evacuated across the city as part of a drill.
On the other side of the city, a manager at the Luciano Italian restaurant said that staff had been told to evacuate the building for about two hours after receiving a bomb threat.
“There was a phone call, an anonymous phone call, they said there was a bomb in the building,” said the manager, who declined to give their name because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A FIFA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Rostov-on-Don, about 955km south of Moscow, has so far hosted four matches, including Croatia’s 2-1 win over Iceland earlier on Tuesday. The next scheduled match at the venue is on Monday.
The city is just a short distance from Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine, where rebels backed by Moscow have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014, and its close proximity to the conflict had caused security concerns ahead of the tournament.
The hotel is listed as an official World Cup hotel by FIFA, but none of the competing teams are staying there, official documents showed.
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