Walmart store in U.S. Texas evacuated after bomb threat

Xinhua News Agency

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A bomb threat Friday afternoon forced employees and shoppers to evacuate a Walmart store in Houston, the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas.

The incident occurred in the Walmart store in northwest Harris county after police received a phone call about the bomb threat around 5 p.m. local time (2300 GMT), according to local TV station ABC13.

It is not clear how many people were inside the store, but the Houston police bomb squad is now in the store to search for explosives.

No further details were immediately available.

Walmart, an American multinational retail corporation headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, has 11,534 stores and clubs in 28 countries and regions.

The supermarket chain has received a number of bomb threats and was home to violence in the past. On June 14, police shot and killed an armed hostage-taker at a Walmart store in Amarillo, a city in north Texas.

(APD)