Courts throughout Germany shut down after receiving bomb threats

The largest operation occurred at the regional court on Jägerallee in Potsdam, where about 200 people were already on the premises in the morning, was then evacuated.

"Today at 7:45 a.m. we received information that a threat has been received, announcing the explosion of a bomb today," a spokesman for the Western Police Directorate told the Berliner Morgenpost about the situation in Potsdam. "As a result, all possible measures were taken to check and avert danger."

Policemen with sniffer dogs searched through the rooms. Jägerallee remained open for traffic, and only the area directly in front of the courthouse had been closed. They tweeted that nothing had been found following a comprehensive search. 

Investigators in all evacuated buildings are currently evaluating whether the threat should be taken seriously. Once the buildings have been extensively searched, they will decide whether they can be opened to the public again.

Sniffer dogs also in use in other cities

In Erfurt, around 30 employees from the court building had to evacuate the premises, but are now able to return after they did not find anything, according to Erfurt police. 

This morning, after the evacuation, a search with a sniffer dog was still pending at the Magdeburg Regional Court. It is still unclear just how many people were in the building this morning.

Buildings of the district courts of Kiel, Saarbrücken and Wiesbaden were also cleared. No dangerous objects were found in the capital of Saarland. "Now the operation is running normally again", a spokeswoman told Tagesschau.de.

Police in Wiesbaden tweeted that sniffer dogs on the premises were unable to find anything suspicious. 

In the past weeks, task forces had already examined bomb threats at other district courts in Schleswig-Holstein. Suspicious objects had not been found in any of the incidents.