Los Angeles schools shut due to ‘backpack bomb threat — TERROR LOCKDOWN

New York’s police commissioner has branded the closure of all of Los Angeles schools after a bomb threat “a significant overreaction”.

According to California congressman Adam Schiff, an initial investigation suggested the threats were a hoax created to disrupt the school districts. In addition to explosives, the email says “nerve gas” would also be a part of the attack.

For children who have already arrived at school, parents must show photo ID when picking up children. NY authorities dismissed the threat as a hoax. “And there is nothing you can do to stop it”, it said.

Tragically, a 17-year-old student was struck and killed by a city service truck as he crossed the street near his school at 7:30 a.m. He had just been accepted to the film school at Cal State L.A.

“In an abundance of caution, as the superintendent has indicated, we have chosen to close our schools today until we can be absolutely sure that our campuses are safe”.

According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Monday, national security has become the top issue of concern for Americans in the wake of the San Bernardino assault and the recent deadly attacks in Paris.

It was the first closure of the full district in at least a decade, officials said, and appeared to be unprecedented in scale. Beck defended that decision.

In Torrance, officials reported that schools in that city would be open.

“These are tough times”, Beck said. The message’s last known IP address was in Germany, law enforcement sources said and a district spokesman confirmed.

The sheriff’s office said it had closed all district schools as a precaution.

The email was provided to the AP by a law enforcement official with access to the document.

Copyright 2015 Associated Press. Other school districts around the country got it too, they said.

“I’m not going to be a Tuesday morning quarterback”, he said.

He said a school superintendent received the threatening email Tuesday morning. He said the person who wrote the note claimed to be a jihadist, but made errors that made it clear the person was a prankster, including spelling the word “Allah” with a lowercase “a”.

Parents told NBC4 they were notified early Tuesday that they should not send students to school. After-school events were also cancelled. She’s concerned about her daughter feeling safe in class. Students were sent home as officials look into the the threat.

The bomb scare comes less than two weeks after a terrorist attack in San Bernardino that left 14 dead and 22 others wounded.

“This is a rare threat”.

The threat “was not to one school, two schools or three schools”, he said. “I think that at the moment they are particularly sensitive to the threat”, said Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush. As a result, they made the decision to close all campuses for the day. “The District has no further information or details at this point”.

The LA shutdown abruptly closed more than 900 public schools and 187 charter schools attended by 640,000 youngsters across the city.