Police officers mobilized, public transport paralyzed and thousands of travelers distraught because ... of a tweet. Following a bomb threat, the Cergy-le-Haut and Cergy-Saint-Christophe stations were evacuated this Friday afternoon. The traffic was interrupted on the RER A from 4:26 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. The bus lines that serve them have been disrupted. The security perimeter set up around the two stations led to the closure of several streets.
It was the Val-d'Oise police who triggered the alert after receiving a report about a message on Twitter. "I had written that the uncle of foyerman was going to ask something that goes boom at the station of Cergy le haut at 4:30 pm" (sic), indicated later the likely author of this message.
The author of the message risks 30,000 euros
This anonymous Twitter account (@cpasmoila) was then deleted and all of his messages with it. If some Internet users saw it as a joke, the community manager of line A of the RER recalled that "the comments made are systematically the subject of an immediate report to the various competent security bodies".
Cergy train station bomb threat after an explicit message was broadcast on twitter. https://t.co/cAXvM6SqmT pic.twitter.com/0t7VqbsxoG
- DoNoT3sk (@ DoNoT3sk) August 28, 2020The police therefore requested the interruption of traffic and the closure of the stations to the SNCF. All the patrols available in the area have been ordered to go there. Dog handlers trained in explosives detection were dispatched to the site.
They were able to ensure that there was no explosive device which enabled the device to be lifted. Now the police will try to identify the author of the message. Article 322-14 of the penal code provides for penalties of up to two years in prison with a fine of 30,000 euros for the perpetrators of false bomb threats.
