Police have confirmed a bomb scare at the Kenilworth Shopping Centre in Cape Town.
“This office can confirm a bomb scare at a shopping mall in the Claremont area. The mall was evacuated … to ensure people’s safety … At this stage the SAPS K9 Unit and Bomb Squad [are] still busy on the scene,” police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk said on Saturday.
Scores of shoppers are understood to have been evacuated following the incident.
Earlier, the mall said in a statement to News24, that a “security threat” was behind the evacuation.
“Due to a security threat, Kenilworth Centre has been evacuated to ensure the safety and security of our customers, tenants and staff. Once it has been established that it is safe, the Centre will be re-opened.”
The bomb threat follows a chaotic few months in KwaZulu-Natal where a number of suspicious devices were found in Durban, particularly at large shopping malls.
In the latest incident, the Phoenix police station had to be evacuated following a bomb threat hoax.
On the same day, the Cornubia Mall in Mount Edgecombe was evacuated for the same reason.
Hundreds of patrons and mall workers were evacuated after the police allegedly received a tip off that there was a bomb in Woolworths.
The mall was reopened with the police bomb squad giving the all clear.
There have been six devices found in recent weeks with the bomb squad performing a controlled detonation at a threat in Wentworth on Monday.