Panicked parents rush to pick up children after bomb threat at Fremont school

FREMONT, Calif. (KTVU) - Fremont police on Friday investigated the threat of a bomb on the campus of Thornton Junior High, causing panic for parents who rushed to pick up their children. 

The threat was sent by email shortly before 8 a.m. and prompted fears of an active shooter or explosive device. 

An hour later, police tweeted that students were safe and were evacuated to the Cabrillo Shopping Center west of campus. 

Seventh-grader Kaylee Foltz said, "I was scared that one of my friends was going to get hurt maybe. And that I was going to get hurt. So it was a lot of overwhelming stuff."

Parents swarmed to the shopping center in a panic to pick up their students, most of whom did not seem scared and were cheering and whooping in the background. 

By 10 a.m. completed a two-hour search of the premises, but found no threatening devices and cleared the school of any threat. 

Police Chief Mike Gilfoy said, "We go through the school, and then we also check rooms usually room-to-room. And a lot of times we'll call out a bomb-sniffing dog to see if there's anything that shouldn't be there."

Despite that, Thornton Junior High will remain closed for the rest of the day. Detectives are trying to track down the person who sent the threat.