Donetsk, Jul 9 - DAN. Some 1,500 people were at the Kontinent shopping mall in central Donetsk when a bomb threat call came in, mall director Yevgeny Skorik told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.

“The call came to the Emergencies Ministry and a quick response followed; the inspection of mall premises is ongoing,” Skorik said. “All employees and shoppers have been evacuated, they number 1,200 to 1,500. Two floors have already been done; the third is now being checked.”

The situation around the mall has been calm; employees are waiting to return to their workplaces; many people are exchanging jokes, some used the pause to have a meal or refreshing drink.

The call came to 102 and services respond routinely; it’s nothing special, a standard situation. Everybody has been evacuated; engineers with sniffer dogs are at work,” Donetsk Voroshilovsky district administration head Vladislav Latyntsev told DAN.

Earlier reports said that the mall had been evacuated over bomb threat. Police sealed off the area. Engineers are working at the scene and medics are on hand.*jk