Bomb threat leads Corona’s Centennial High School to cancel school

Centennial High School in Corona canceled all classes Tuesday because of a bomb threat, although the campus has since been deemed safe, officials said.

The Corona Police Department received a phone call at 12:45 a.m. from a female caller who “said there were two pipe bombs in backpacks on campus, and they were going to detonate early this morning,” police Sgt. Paul Mercado said.

With the help of bomb-detection dogs and an assist from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, Mercado said, police found two suspicious backpacks, one in a locker and one in a building.

They determined at 8 a.m. that the backpacks contained no explosive devices, he said. By then, school officials already had canceled classes for the day.

The Centennial High campus will be open Tuesday for after-school extracurricular activities, and classes will resume Wednesday morning, said Evita Tapia, a spokeswoman for the Corona-Norco Unified School District.

The high school has about 3,350 students and 150 staff members.

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