Emailed bomb threat briefly upends business at Minnesota Capitol

An emailed bomb threat to the Minnesota State Capitol on Wednesday morning briefly shut down the building for a security sweep, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

The state was one of many Capitols across the country to receive such a threat, patrol spokeswoman Lt. Jill Frankfurth said in a written statement.

Security learned of the threat about 9 a.m. and locked the building while troopers and Matka, an explosive-detecting Hungarian Vizsla dog, conducted searches for about 45 minutes beginning at 9:30 a.m. Nothing suspicious or threatening was found and the building was reopened.

Gov. Tim Walz was not at the Capitol at the time of the threat, a spokeswoman said.

Some activities in the main building were moved to other spaces on the Capitol complex.

The state Supreme Court's seven justices were in the main building's second-floor courtroom hearing oral arguments on a case involving a man's challenge to the revocation of his driver's license. When the justices received word of the threat, they stepped off the bench and walked across the street to a courtroom in the Judicial Center and continued hearing the case.

As a precaution, Frankfurth said there was an enhanced security presence at the Capitol on Wednesday.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Fusion Center is working with other fusion centers across the country to monitor the situation, Frankfurth's statement said.

Other states receiving threats included Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri and Maryland.

This story includes information from the Associated Press.