A bomb threat halted state ferry service on the Bainbridge Island and Bremerton runs to Seattle for part of Sunday morning into the afternoon. Following the threat, authorities swept the Bainbridge ferry terminal and the ferry Tacoma and found nothing suspicious, and both routes returned to normal service.
Washington State Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling said a bomb threat to the Bainbridge terminal was called in at about 10:15 a.m. The terminal was evacuated and shut down. At about the same time the threat came in, the ferry Tacoma had just departed the terminal for Seattle.
“There was some concern there as well,” Sterling said, which led authorities to shut down Colman Dock, the Bainbridge terminal and the Tacoma at one point.
The Washington State Patrol’s Homeland Security Division reported on Twitter that the threat was made anonymously. K-9 teams cleared the vessel and terminals and did not locate anything suspicious, the division said.
“We will continue to investigate the circumstances around this threat,” the division said. “We appreciate your patience.”
Sterling said normal operations resumed shortly after 1 p.m.
Nathan Pilling is a reporter covering Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap and Washington State Ferries for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-5242, nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @KSNatePilling.
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