San Angelo and El Paso among towns hit with emailed bomb threats

A nationwide torrent of bomb threats emailed to universities, businesses, schools and news outlets Thursday sent police and fire departments scrambling to sort out what appeared to be an electronic hoax aimed at extorting bitcoin from its targets.

There were no reports any actual explosive devices had been discovered, but the threats alone forced many police departments to monitor and investigate.

A threat was received at the Cactus Hotel in downtown San Angelo, which closed roads around the historic building at 36 E. Towhig Ave. for several hours Thursday afternoon while first responders investigated. 

More:Officials investigate hoax bomb threat at San Angelo's Cactus Hotel

Hospitals in Coleman and Comanche were evacuated Thursday afternoon after receiving bomb threats, according to the Abilene Reporter-News. Both hospitals were evacuated as a precaution and patients were moved to other facilities. 

More:Bomb threats at Coleman, Comanche hospitals force evacuations

Various businesses in El Paso also received the emailed threat. Police said the emails were sent en masse to the businesses, which officials didn't identify. 

The FBI tweeted Thursday evening that the agency is "aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities around the country" and urged the public to "remain vigilant."

The emails were sent to tens of thousands of targets nationwide, in dozens of cities, and continued for hours.

Many of the threats demanded $20,000 in bitcoin, according to AppRiver, a Florida-based cybersecurity company that obtained copies of the emails. 

In one, the sender warned that a "recruited mercenary" had placed an explosive device in the targeted building and would detonate it unless the payment was made.

Troy Gill, manager of security research at AppRiver, said the poorly worded emails, which used non-native English, were being sent by a server in Moscow, although it was not clear whether the perpetrators were located in Russia or elsewhere in the world.

The chief financial officer for the Concho Valley Community Action Agency housed inside the Cactus Hotel received the emailed bomb threat Thursday. 

Executive Director Mark Bethune said he alerted authorities after reading the email, which demanded $20,000 in Bitcoin.

The subject line of the email was short and ominous: Don't play with me.

"They never specified it was the Cactus or our agency," Bethune said. "I found it less than credible, but when someone is threatening to blow up your building, you take it seriously."

About 4:30 p.m. Thursday the San Angelo Police Department announced officers, in conjunction with the San Angelo Fire Department's Fire Marshal's office were investigating the emailed bomb threat. 

"The email message references the detonation of an explosive device(s) unless the email recipient(s) transfer a sum of money to the sender," police said. 

By 5:05 p.m. Thursday the building was cleared by first responders and no threat was found, officials said. 

At Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, Yochum Hall was evacuated because of a bomb threat. Similar threats were also sent to the University of Washington, Penn State and Niagara University.  In New Jersey, even middle and high schools received bomb threats. 

The San Francisco police department said on Twitter that its forces had responded to reports of bomb threats "at numerous locations throughout the city and had responded to each location."

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a tweet the threats in that city followed in the same pattern as others around the country:

“#ChicagoPolice are working with federal partners on the investigation, and at this time there is no elevated threat level in the city of Chicago,’’ the tweet said.

Other major cities reporting similar threats were New York City, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Detroit and Buffalo.

Contributing: El Paso Times, San Angelo Standard-Times, Abilene Reporter-News, Marina Pitofsky in McLean, Va.