20,000 people evacuated from multiple venues in Moscow on bomb threats

A security guard blocks the entrance to the State Department Store, GUM, due to a bomb threat in central Moscow, Russia Sept 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - Over 20,000 people were evacuated from more than 30 facilities here on Wednesday, following "almost simultaneous" anonymous phone calls with bomb threats, Russian news agencies reported.

Police and sappers checked over 30 facilities in Moscow, including three railway stations, major shopping malls and hotels in various parts of the city, Tass news agency reported, quoting a source in the emergency services of the Russian capital.

Interfax news agency reported that law enforcement bodies were checking a phone call stating that a bomb was planted in Moscow's central Red Square.

The phone calls are still coming in, according to the Tass source.

Each of the phone calls is being checked, but no official information referring to the calls has been published so far.

According to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, such bomb threat calls were recorded in 22 cities in Russia in the last three days, during which more than 45,000 people had been evacuated from 205 objects with a massive stay.

All such calls proved to be hoaxes, and the sources said that most of the calls could be coming from neighboring Ukraine, which accuses Russia of involvement in hostilities in the south of the country, the agencies said.

The law enforcement agencies continued active search for the callers, RIA Novosti said.