RivCo Clinics Targeted By Bomb Threat Hoax, Forcing Mass Evacuations: Police

RIVERSIDE, CA — Business at a group of clinics across the Inland Empire was disrupted Tuesday when a hoax bomb threat forced all seven of its facilities to close, according to authorities.

Emergency personnel received a report shortly after 10 a.m. about a bomb threat that had been made to the call center for Riverside Medical Clinic, Riverside police said. Around the same time, someone pulled a fire alarm at the clinic’s campus on Brockton Avenue in Riverside, according to police.

The threat did not specify a location, so the clinic evacuated all its campuses across Riverside, Murrieta, Eastvale and Temescal Valley, police said. More than 900 employees were evacuated and hundreds of patients had appointments canceled, KABC reported.

Notre Dame High School and St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic School in Riverside were placed on lockdown due to their proximity to the Brockton Avenue clinic campus, with Notre Dame evacuating students to a nearby park, according to police.

Numerous law enforcement agencies, including a bomb squad and detection canine teams, worked to search and clear each campus, police said, adding authorities will continue to investigate the hoax’s origin.

“Making a false emergency call of this nature is dangerous and illegal,” the Riverside Police Department said in a social media post Tuesday evening. “It diverts critical public safety resources, creates unnecessary fear, and causes major disruptions to essential operations, especially at medical facilities where patient care can be severely impacted.”

The clinic will resume normal operations on Wednesday, it posted on Facebook. Patients whose appointments were affected should call 951-683-6370 to reschedule.

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