Uploaded: Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001, 6:15 p.m.

Bomb threat unfounded at Stanford hospital

Police allow operations to resume this afternoon

Stanford Medical Center reports hospital operations resumed this afternoon following an evacuation sparked by a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Palo Alto Police Department Sgt. John Costa said that at about 10:30 this morning, the medical center received an anonymous phone call threatening bombs in the main hospital wing as well as in the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

"In light of recent events, we took the call very seriously,"Costa said. "Within a half an hour of the call, portions of both buildings were evacuated."

Only a small number of medical staff in operating rooms and inpatients were allowed to stay in the building, Costa said. Everyone else was moved to staging areas in adjoining parking lots.

All patients and staff were allowed to return inside at about 2 p.m., after the Santa Clara County Bomb Squad completed a "search and sweep" of the buildings and found nothing, Costa said.

Investigators have no leads on who phoned in the threat, Costa said, except that the caller was a male adult, speaking in an accent that wasn't typical to any specific culture, he said.

"It's not clear whether the man was speaking with an unidentifiable accent or masking his voice," Costa said.

A Stanford Medical Center spokeswoman said all hospital operations have continued as usual, and will tomorrow as well. - Bay City News Service