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Bomb threat reported near state Capitol

ATLANTA — State law enforcement officials are investigating a bomb threat near the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday morning.

The threat was called in to a building at 47 Trinity Avenue around 9 a.m., according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety. The building, along with four other state buildings in the area, were evacuated.

Channel 2's Lori Geary was there as Georgia State Patrol troopers and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the area. Sources told Geary the employee who answered the threat call tried to determine the caller's phone number, but it was blocked.

Capitol Square and Trinity Avenue were blocked during the investigation, along with Mitchell Street at Washington Street, just outside Atlanta City Hall.

"They are costly, in terms of loss of time, inconvenience to those who are involved in having to evacuate their buildings, but we live in a world in which this happens. We just have to be as prepared as possible. We always have to prepare for the worst," Gov. Nathan Deal said. 

State employees seemed calm about the incident.

"The key to these things is you drill enough times so when it does happen, you don't think about, you just do it," state employee Dave Crass told Channel 2's Jeff Dore.

The "all-clear" was given shortly before noon.

The FBI said it is monitoring the incident, along with various others across the country. The agency released a statement saying, "The FBI is aware of multiple threatening phone calls at airports and public buildings across the country over the past 48 hours.  FBI Agents are monitoring the separate incidents with state and local law enforcement agencies in their respective jurisdictions to see if there are any similarities.  There were no actual devices located in any of the incidents.”