Strike Force Rolum to investigate Colo High threat

A Cybercrime Strike Force has been formed to investigate a threatening email to Colo High school which saw pupils briefly evacuated on Tuesday.

The strike force will be under the command of Cybercrime Squad Commander Det Supt Matt Craft and will investigate the source of emails which saw 20 Sydney schools take emergency measures in the middle of HSC exams. Ten regional schools were also affected by the threat.

Colo High school received an email identifying a suspicious item on school grounds yesterday around midday.

Staff told parents via Facebook that there didn’t seem to be a specific threat but police were called and all students and staff were moved to the school’s top oval.

Parents were told not to try and pick their children up while police examined the school grounds.

An hour later the school was deemed safe by NSW Police and students went back inside to attend a full school assembly so everyone could be updated. The school day then continued as normal and finished at the regular time.

The HSC Visual Arts exam continued as scheduled. Group misadventures have been submitted for both the Legal Studies and Visual Arts exam.

Local officers, assisted by specialist police, carried out extensive searches at each of the schools, and police say, “no items of interest were located”.