ORLANDO, Fla. – A bomb threat at the Mall at Millenia prompted evacuations Saturday evening, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Police said they found no evidence or materials suggesting the bomb threat was credible, but people said during the evacuation things were chaotic.
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“As soon as we come out of the parking lot in front of Macy’s, we saw lots of police cars going towards the mall,” Mohammad Rashid said.
Emilie Cosme, who works at the mall, was standing with her father, Jerry, and recounted what happened when people heard there was an incident happening at the mall.
“I see at the door a whole bunch of people running, immediately I run to the door and lock it, and everyone is in the back and then we see a whole bunch of police with big guns,” Emilie Cosme said.
She said she called her parents while trying to keep customers calm.
“I tried, I definitely tried to keep calm because there was random people in the back and there was little kids, and I was trying not to panic and keep calm and as soon as we got out, we got out safe,” she said.
Police are investigating the bomb threat, saying when they arrived, the evacuation was already underway, which will be a part of the investigation due to the call of the initial threat coming to police.
Police said they were notified of the threat from a call that came around 7 p.m.
“The call was indicating that there was several bombs in various parts of the mall, there was no other specific information concerning that,” said Lt. William Becton with the department.
Police said traffic was the bigger issue as they tried to get people away from the area.
Jerry Cosme said traffic was also an issue as he tried to get his daughter.
“I raced down here, but the traffic they wouldn’t let you go through, so I had to go all the way around Vineland and come down, and I spoke to an officer who wouldn’t let me go through, so I ended up parking at WaWa on John Young and made my way down,” Jerry Cosme said.
The mall is set to reopen Sunday.
No one was injured in this incident.