HERJOLFUR III

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Ferry evacuated after bomb threat

The "Herjólfur" was evacuated in the morning of Apr 28, 2016, following the receipt of a message saying there was a bomb on board. The alert was raised when a member of a group of foreign students on board the ferry received an SMS message while the ferry was en-route between the mainland and Vestmannaeyjar. The text message was a bomb threat against the boat. The student told a teacher, who took the student and phone to report the message to the crew. The crew, in turn, made the police and Coastguard aware of the situation. As soon as the ship docked on the Vestmannaeyjar island of Heimaey, the police evacuated all passengers and crew as quickly as possible. Authorities sealed the ship like a crime scene while the search was carried out. After the search revealed nothing suspicious, it was released back to Eimskip and allowed to continue with its schedule. The police believed the message was left in the onboard Wi-Fi system as a "prank" and that the Scandinavian student who received the message was simply the first person to log into the free Wi-Fi in the morning. Such "prank" messages are apparently a known problem and have occurred in Iceland before.