Thousands of travelers were held up for hours this weekend when a popular British Columbia ferry line suspended its services after police received a bomb threat they considered credible, AP reported. David Hahn, chief operating officer of B.C. Ferries, said someone with a Middle Eastern accent called in the threat in a call to an emergency dispatcher at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday from a mall in suburban Coquitlam. «Whether it was a Middle Eastern caller is a different issue, but that was the accent they were using,» Hahn said. «This was a very specific type of bomb threat that was reported . . . The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) had every vehicle, every bus, every camper, checked,» he said. Twenty-one trips from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, near Victoria, and Duke Point, near Nanaimo, as well as to several smaller islands off the British Columbia coast were canceled. Travelers were forced to wait in terminals near Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. The big ships between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay carry up to 470 cars and 2,100 passengers. In the summer, ferries depart between the two terminals every hour. One ferry that had already left the terminal had to be turned back. Another ferry that was ready to depart for Swartz Bay in Victoria was halted. All the passengers on both ships were evacuated and their vehicles searched. The vehicles clogging the parking lot at the Tsawwassen terminal south of Vancouver were also searched. The Tsawwassen terminal, about a 40-minute drive south of Vancouver, is one of the ferry fleet's main terminals. Hahn said people were significantly inconvenienced and some had to wait up to six hours. By 9 p.m., the ships were able to return to limited service. The ferry system routinely receives bomb threats and had one as recently as a month ago, but Saturday's full-scale alert was rare, Hahn said. «I would say that this is one that, for whatever reason, the RCMP gave more credibility,» he said. Hahn said B.C. Ferries is offering a C$50,000 (US$47,000) reward to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest of the person who called in the threat. Police in suburban Delta also said they are investigating who made the threat. Earlier this year, an executive with B.C. Ferries mused that passengers should brace themselves for increased security on the ships, suggesting the company may move toward implementing airport-style measures. B.C. Ferries later backed away from that suggestion, but in May, the company received C$4 million (US$3.8 million) from the federal government to help improve security. The money was to be spent at terminals in Nanaimo, Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen for such items as perimeter security, lighting, fencing, surveillance cameras and employee training.
