Three buildings at a U.S. naval shipyard in Virginia were evacuated on Monday afternoon after a “threatening message” was discovered.
An employee discovered the undisclosed message written on a bathroom stall door inside an industrial building at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, according to a statement at around 4:15 p.m. local time.
“To ensure the safety of our workforce, additional security measures were immediately implemented for this building and immediate surrounding area. The building was evacuated and is likely to remain evacuated until later this afternoon to allow for a thorough security walk through of the building,” the statement reads.
Two other buildings were evacuated due to the proximity to the bathroom stall. The evacuations were described as precautionary.
The industrial buildings house the shipyard’s Marine Machinist and Pipefitter groups, which include production shops. About 400 employees, or around 10 percent, of the shipyard’s industrial workforce were dismissed early.
“Today’s events will have no impact on current shipyard availabilities. We expect work to fully resume for our regularly scheduled 2nd shift this evening,” the statement added.
Officials with the shipyard said they cannot comment on the nature of the threat due to an ongoing investigation.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was called out to investigate the matter.
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