Austrian president evacuated after bomb threat

VIENNA: Austria´s president and others in the presidency in downtown Vienna were briefly evacuated on Wednesday following a bomb threat, officials said.

President Alexander Van der Bellen was among those brought to safety, according to his spokesman Reinhard Pickl-Herk. “The president was at the presidency. He was warned and brought to safety. He is safe,” he told AFP. Police with sniffer dogs combed the sealed-off area, also including the nearby chancellery, but after one-and-a-half hours did not find any explosives. “Everyone can return to the building,” a police spokesman, who declined to be named, told AFP.