Cork Opera House evacuated and concert cancelled after bomb hoax

Cork Opera House had to be evacuated and a concert cancelled last night after a bomb hoax.

Gardaí at Anglesea Street Garda Station in the city received a call at 6.13pm claiming that a bomb had been left in the concert venue.

Management at the Opera House were immediately informed and the small number of people who were in the building at the time were quickly evacuated.

By 6.30pm gardaí accompanied by sniffer dogs had sealed off the area and began a full sweep of the building. For more than two hours they searched every corner of the venue on Emmet Place.

A Garda spokesman said the bomb squad was not called as no suspect device was located and the search was called off at about 8.45pm.

He said that, upon receipt of the call, officers had immediately followed procedure, placing public safety at the forefront of their thoughts.

“We had to take the threat seriously and conduct a thorough search of the building,” said the spokesman.

He also said gardaí would be carrying out a full investigation into the source of the call which resulted in serious disruption to the theatre and a waste of Garda time and resources.

Meanwhile, Cork Opera House was forced to take the decision to cancel the concert by 2ManyDJs which was due to begin at 10pm.

Just after 8pm, a message appeared on the venue’s Twitter account which read: “Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control 2ManyDJs is cancelled tonight. We hope to re-schedule, keep an eye on twitter for more info.”

Up to 800 people had been expected to attend the concert.