UPDATE, 1:50pm - According to campus officials, a suspicious package has been found. An x-ray unit is on its way from Albany. The campus remains on lockdown. Due to the length of the emergency, all classes are cancelled but people are being advised that they must remain sheltered in place. The campus lockdown is likely to last for at least a couple more hours. Thank you for your cooperation. Updates every 30-45 minutes
Officials at a private college in central New York say the campus has been locked down as police check out a suspicious package after a bomb and shooting threat was made over the phone.
Vige Barrie, a spokeswoman for Hamilton College, tells The Associated Press the threat was received around 9:35 a.m. Monday. She says a suspicious package was later found at the Kirner-Johnson Building, which houses offices and classrooms on the 2,000-student campus in rural Oneida County, 40 miles east of Syracuse.
The college sent out a campus-wide message shortly before 11 a.m. alerting students and staff.
Barrie says state police, sheriff's deputies and local police are on the scene. She says the state police bomb disposal unit is en route to the campus. In the meantime, some nearby buildings have been evacuated.
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