Two Shinsegae shopping centers near Seoul were searched by police early Wednesday morning after a second online bomb threat surfaced, prompting emergency sweeps at Starfield Hanam and the Shinsegae Department Store South City branch in Yongin’s Suji District.
According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, the latest scare was triggered by a YouTube comment posted late Tuesday night stating, “I will bomb a Shinsegae department store too.” Yongin Seobu Police received the report around 11 p.m., secured an emergency warrant to trace the commenter’s IP address, and coordinated with Hadong Police in South Gyeongsang Province to arrest the suspect Wednesday morning in the county of Hadong.
Because the comment did not specify a particular store, police and fire officials began sweeping multiple Shinsegae properties in Gyeonggi Province starting at 6 a.m., including Starfield Hanam in Hanam city and the South City branch in Yongin’s Suji district.
No explosives were found, and search operations were called off following the suspect’s arrest.
This follows a separate bomb hoax less than 24 hours earlier, when a 13-year-old boy in Jeju was arrested for posting a false threat targeting Shinsegae’s Myeongdong flagship in Seoul. His post triggered the evacuation of 4,000 people and a 90-minute police search. He is under investigation for public intimidation.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
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