Police ordered the evacuation of a casino, four restaurants and an ice cream outlet at the Gulf City Mall in La Romaine yesterday, following an alleged Isis bomb threat to the establishment. The T&T Guardian was told the order to evacuate the businesses came following the earlier evacuation of Trincity Mall and TruValu at Long Circular Mall following similar threats.
The Isis threat to target malls in Trinidad were circulated via voice notes earlier this week, warning people to stay away from the malls from yesterday into the weekend.
Shortly after 3 pm yesterday, employees and patrons at Carnival City Members’Club, the only businessplace inside the mall which was open, were seen briskly leaving the building. Sources, however, confirmed there was no bomb threat. Several police vehicles arrived shortly after with heavily armed police officers.
The other businesses on the compound—TGI Fridays, Wendy’s, Ruby Tuesday, Subway and Haagen-Dazs were also ordered to close. An employee at the icecream outlet said the police ordered them to close because of a “gas leak”.
Members of the media were warned by the police, via their loud speaker, to stay to the outskirts of the mall for their own safety during the search of the businesses.
Munching on an icecream, Kareem La Borde, who calmly left the ice cream outlet, said he was not afraid. He said he deliberately went to the mall to see whether anything would happen.
While he was not dismissing the threat as a fake, La Borde said Trinidadians must not give in to fear. By doing so, he said the terrorists will win. He did not think the people behind the alleged threats were representing any particular religion, but were just trying to subject the nation to fear.
He urged people to be vigilant, but not give in to fear by closing their businessness or altering their daily lives.