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BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Two passenger buses bound for California were stopped Thursday afternoon in southern Idaho after a bomb threat was called in to the Salt Lake City Greyhound bus station.
A Greyhound bus was stopped near Hazelton on Interstate 84, while a second bus, operated by Rimrock Stages Trailways, was stopped on I-84 at the Malad rest area near Twin Falls.
The buses were about 50 miles apart when Idaho State Police halted them about 3 p.m.
At about 2 p.m., a caller told bus station workers that an explosive device was aboard an unspecified bus traveling to California via Salt Lake City, and those two buses matched that description, said Rick Ohnsman, a State Police spokesman.
Explosives teams and a bomb-sniffing dog helped search the vehicles, Ohnsman said, adding that passengers left the buses immediately and were provided with alternate transportation.
As of Thursday night, police hadn't reported finding any explosives.
Freeway traffic near Hazelton was diverted onto a frontage road for seven miles to skirt the area where the Greyhound bus was being searched.
"Any time you get something like this, you treat it as if it's the real deal, until you know otherwise," Ohnsman said.
Police didn't immediately say where the buses originated or their specific destination in California. A Greyhound employee in Salt Lake City declined to provide details of the threat.
"We'll be cooperating with the authorities," said Eric Wesley, a Greyhound spokesman in Dallas, where Greyhound is based. Rimrock Stages Trailways, a busline and charter bus service, is based in Billings, Mont.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
