German courts evacuated after series of bomb threats

Six courthouses in German cities have been forced to be evacuated temporarily after a series of bomb threats, German police announced on Friday.

The courts of Potsdam, Magdeburg, Erfurt, Saarbruecken, Wiesbaden and Kiel were affected by bomb threats that had been sent via anonymous e-mail, German police explains. The threats would be investigated at a national level, according to Magdeburg police.

Around 200 people had to be evacuated from the justice department in Potsdam alones, after a threat was received via mail to detonate an explosive charge, Brandenburg police revealed on Twitter.

The building was searched with a sniffing dog and the area around the building was sealed off temporarily but German police announced that no explosives had been found following the comprehensive search.

Court buildings of of Kiel, Saarbruecken, Magdeburg and Wiesbaden were also cleared of all personal but no dangerous objects were found and "now, we are back to business as usual", a spokesperson of the Saarbruecken court said.

In the past weeks, bomb threats at other regional courts in Germany have already occupied investigators. In all cases, no suspicious objects or substances had been found.