School threats believed to be a swatting incident, police say

Calgary police say threats made against local schools Thursday are believed to be a "swatting" incident, adding they believe the comments have "no legitimacy."

Swatting is a tactic wherein individuals report fictitious serious incidents in order to get police to attend a particular address.

"There's no credible threat to any Calgary-area schools tomorrow," said Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson with Calgary police. "It's clearly a hoax designed to fuel fear within the community. We're certainly not going to give it any more attention than it deserves."

The tweets, sent by a user that has now been suspended by Twitter, threatened violence against local school infrastructure and contained images of various weapons.

Investigators from the Calgary police cybercrime team confirmed that the account in question that issued the threats was not local – and not even located within Canada.

The threats came the same day that it was reported that three teenagers in Scotland had been charged after shooting and bomb threats were made earlier this year against schools in five countries, including in Calgary and Edmonton.

There was no reason to believe that schools in Calgary were not safe, Hanson said.

"We've got our school resource officers present at the schools to ensure safety, and to reassure everybody when they get there that things are safe," Hanson said. "We're leaving (attendance) decisions to the parents, but from a police perspective we don't give it any credibility at all."

No further information was immediately released by police.