Dozens of schools across Colorado received bomb threats Tuesday morning, which prompted many of them to evacuate, the Kiowa County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
Synagogues in the Denver and Boulder also received threats, according to reports from Denver Gazette news partner KUSA.
Spokesperson Vikki Migoya with the FBI Denver field office on Tuesday confirmed the FBI's involvement with the string of threats.
"The FBI takes hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention," Migoya said.
Emailed bomb threats were sent to schools in Kiowa and El Paso counties, with the Kiowa County Sheriff's Office saying the threats were identical to others sent to more than 40 schools across the state.
The Kiowa County Sheriff's Office said it received the bomb threat, targeting the three schools in the Eads RE-1 school district, at about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday. Eads is about 130 miles southeast of Colorado Springs.
"Emergency personnel arrived on scene quickly, the schools were evacuated and a perimeter was established," the Sheriff's Office reported on its social media. "Upon investigation, it was determined this same threat was given to 40+ schools throughout the state. The schools were cleared by law enforcement and the threat was deemed to be fictitious."
The Kiowa County Sheriff's Office post said there was no active threat to the students, and that the threats' source was under investigation.
At 10:24 a.m., Ellicott School District 22 in eastern El Paso County also received a bomb threat. The emails were sent to administrators and teachers in the building, according to a notification message on the district's website.
"The district began evacuating at 10:30 a.m. At this time, everyone is safe, and we are working on reuniting students with families. Please check your phone and / or emails for more information on the location for reuniting with your student," the district message said.
The Ellicott district office confirmed to The Gazette that all students were dismissed for the day and being reunited with families.
Gazette news partner KOAA confirmed that in addition to the Eads and Ellicott school districts, La Veta Public Schools in Huerfano County and the East Otero School District in La Junta received the same threat.
Also, Estes Park police and the Estes Park School District issued a joint statement saying that a threat was received by email that indicated the presence of explosive devices within the school campus, according to KUSA.
Police secured the schools and said they did not believe there was any ongoing threat in the area.
Temple Emanuel, a synagogue in Denver, said their Early Learning Center and entire building were evacuated after "an explosives threat" that was received over email, KUSA reported. The threat, according to Temple Emanuel, was received by synagogues all over the Denver and Boulder areas.
Har HaShem, in Boulder, said in a Facebook post that it received a threat Tuesday morning. Har HaShem staff called police and the campus was cleared with the assistance of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit.
The mass threat of violence against Colorado schools comes less than a year after a wave of threatening phone calls were made to more than a dozen schools across the state. On Feb. 22, 2023, someone threatening a school shooting would call local authorities and say they were entering a local school with a pipe bomb and a rifle.