San Marcos High School evacuated after report of bomb threat; students and staffers are safe

San Marcos High School was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a report of a pipe bomb threat, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

A San Marcos Unified School District spokeswoman said students and staffers were safe, and had been taken to field far from the buildings of the school on San Marcos Boulevard near Rancho Santa Fe Drive. The district arranged to have the students bused to San Marcos Middle School, where parents and guardians could pick them up.

The Sheriff’s Department tweeted that deputies and specially trained bomb-sniffing dogs were searching the campus, and as of about 2:30 p.m., no explosives had been found.

The department said it got a call about 1 p.m. about a pipe bomb at the school. The evacuations were done “out of an abundance of caution,” the department tweeted.

The Sheriff’s Department first tweeted news of the evacuation and bomb threat about 1:20 p.m. About 25 minutes later, the department tweeted that roads were closed and traffic was being diverted, and advised people to avoid the area.

By about 4:15 p.m., San Marcos Boulevard was reopened for traffic in both directions, but access to the school remained closed.

Figueroa writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.