MAR Shopping in Loulé was closed for two hours on Thursday (August 8) due to a fake bomb threat. GNR police have since confirmed that the culprit has been identified.
Reports say that “no one could enter or leave” the shopping centre between 1pm and 3pm, with one witness telling Sulinformação website that “everyone was very frightened”.
However, other people who were inside the shopping centre at the time said they were “not even aware that anything out of the ordinary was happening”.
The culprit apparently distributed flyers where he had written that a bomb was inside the shopping centre. He was later identified by the centre’s CCTV system and caught by police.
GNR officers quickly swept the shopping centre and found that the bomb threat was fake.
The management of MAR Shopping confirmed the incident and said that as soon as the threat was detected, it activated its security protocol which involves contacting authorities to determine if the threat is real.
The source said that “all security recommendations were followed” and that the “safety” of customers and workers was the priority.
