Bomb threat a 'teen prank'

The public prosecutor's office in the Netherlands said a phone call warning of a bomb plot that led to the temporary closing of several large banks in Washington on Monday was a teen prank.

Wim de Bruin, spokesman in the Amsterdam office, said police in the Netherlands had questioned a 13-year-old boy, who admitted he called in the threat as a joke.

The teenager is not in custody and has not been charged, Bruin said.

The FBI investigated but said in a statement that it did not "assign a high degree of credibility to this call."

The caller told police there was a plot to bomb a national bank in the centre of Washington at noon Monday, government sources said.

That time passed without incident.