State government buildings face bomb threats for second consecutive day

Government buildings across the South received bomb threats on Thursday — the second consecutive day that such warnings prompted serious security measures at government facilities.

In Mississippi, “multiple bomb threats at various locations across the state” prompted officials to take “precautionary measures” and put in place “standard emergency procedures,” the state’s Department of Public Safety wrote on X.

The agency said bomb teams had been deployed to locations throughout the state.

Department spokesperson Bailey Martin said the agency was working with state and federal officials in investigating the threats.

Tyree Jones, the sheriff of Hinds County — which includes the state Capitol in Jackson — wrote on X that several local and state courthouses had received threats and been evacuated.

In Arkansas, the Pulaski County Courthouse in Little Rock was also forced to evacuate after a bomb threat was received, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Capitol Police said.

Local media reports in Florida, Massachusetts and Maine indicated that similar threats had prompted the evacuations of state and local government buildings in those states. That included a state courthouse in Daytona Beach, Florida, — the Fifth District Court of Appeal — as well as town and county government offices in Nantucket County in Massachusetts, and several courthouses in the Portland, Maine area.

Law enforcement officials in Florida, Massachusetts and Maine didn’t immediately respond to questions.

The fresh wave of threats comes one day after at least eight state Capitol complexes — including the ones in Mississippi and Arkansas — were forced to evacuate following bomb threats.

In a statement, the FBI said that it was "aware of the numerous hoax