Waitangi Treaty Grounds museums evacuated, police search grounds following bomb threat

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds museums in Northland have been evacuated and police have searched the premises following a bomb threat on Wednesday morning.

People visiting the birthplace of the nation posted on social media they were evacuated from the two museums and Whare Waka cafe.

Waitangi Treaty Grounds chief executive Ben Dalton said the threat came from an email that had been sent to museums throughout the country, along with several hotel chains.

A senior Treaty grounds staff member opened the email about 9.35am and alerted Dalton, who phoned police.

“A chain email went out to museums across the country and a number of hotels, saying there were hidden bombs and they were due to go off in the next few hours.

“Given that there’s always the potential for people’s safety, we followed the advice of police.

“We had police go through the museums with us, then the police cleared us to reopen.”

Dalton said about 23 to 30 people were in the museums — Te Rau Aroha Museum of the Price of Citizenship and Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi — at the time.

However, the cafe was not evacuated, despite reports on social media.

“It was still early, so we went through the standard operating procedures ... we were advised to evacuate. We moved people out quickly from the museums and moved staff out.

“Officers said to us this is happening across the country.”

By 11am the grounds were reopened, and it was business as usual, Dalton said.

“We were told we could resume our normal business.”

Police would not comment and provided only a statement saying “police will no longer be providing information on non-specific mass email threats where there is no apparent risk to public safety”.

“Threatening emails have caused significant and unnecessary concern to public services over the last month,” the statement said.

“In some recent cases, services have been disrupted due to needless evacuations.

“Police will continue to take all reported threats seriously and will release information when necessary for public safety.”

Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering health, roading, lifestyle, business and animal welfare issues.