Update: Albemarle County Police and Albemarle County Fire and Rescue have cleared the incident at Fontaine Research Park.
Albemarle County Police responded to a bomb threat at 560 Ray C. Hunt Drive in the University's Fontaine Research Park, evacuating the building Thursday afternoon.
Albemarle County Police Sgt. Darrell Byers said the threat came in electronically at about 2:30 p.m., after which police searched the building using two explosive detector canine teams.
The other buildings in Fontaine Research Park were not evacuated.
Byers said police had examined "about three-quarters" of the building by 5:45 p.m. and had found nothing.
"Right now [the threat] is not substantiated," Byers said. He estimated the search police would likely finish the inspection by 6:30 p.m., depending on how fast the dogs could search. Canines usually work for about 20 to 30 minutes, then require a 15-minute break.
The 545 building at Fontaine Research Park received a bomb threat March 15 which ultimately turned out to be unsubstantiated, and no charges were filed. Byers said it is not clear at this point whether the two incidents are related.
"Right now it's way too early in the investigation of this particular incident to tell whether or not those incidents are separate incidents or they are related," Byers said.
-compiled by Krista Pedersen
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