PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago police have detained one man after he allegedly phoned in a threat to bomb a shopping mall in Trincity, east of here, on Thursday, Acting Minister of National Security Stuart Young has said.

He told a news conference that, as a result of the effective intelligence and monitoring services, “the person who is alleged to have made this phone call which turned out to be a hoax was actually apprehended by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.

“The phone from which the call was made was recovered in his possession, and that person is now currently detained by the police and is assisting them with ongoing investigations.”

He said the Police Service Command had received a telephone call from a male caller “who said something would happen in 15 minutes” at the Trincity Mall, and because the protective services and law enforcement agencies have an ongoing and continuous operation, and certain protocols in place, “that stepped into action and was very efficient.

The call led to the “orderly evacuation” of the mall. “So within a matter of minutes both the Special Branch, the Criminal Gang Investigation Unit and the Northern Division were able to assemble at the Trincity Mall and have conversations with the owners of the mall as well as the mall security,” he reported.

“We want to thank the police service and thank the other law enforcement agencies for their efficient work and the fact that they were able to, very efficiently and very quickly, due to the monitoring that is going on in the country, immediately move into action, and we had a successful outcome.

“We want the nation to know that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service as well as other law enforcement agencies continue to monitor the circumstances and situations taking place in Trinidad and Tobago, and work very effectively along with our intelligence services including the Strategic Services Agency,” he said.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that his Administration was taking the threat to bomb shopping malls here seriously and warned that it would use every available resource to protect the State and its citizens.

Rowley said that his Administration is treating the alleged threat “seriously” and that, while it had little information regarding the credibility of the source, his Government was not prepared to take chances.

“We have some capacity, but I don’t know that capacity has been able to deliver to us the source. What we do know it has not been determined that it is something that has an origin that we can identify as being realistic, and we also know that there are elements, persons and entities, whose interest will be served if Trinidad and Tobago is destabilised in this kind of way.

“We treat all threats seriously and we take very careful note of those who will destabilise us, What we do know is that that kind of information, real or otherwise, has the potential to be a destabilising influence,” he told reporters.

On Tuesday, national security minister retired Major General Edmund Dillon urged residents to remain calm as police continued their investigations into the authenticity of two recordings posted on the social website warning of a plot to bomb several shopping malls in the country.

In the first recording, directed to a WhatsApp group, the man uses the word “batch”, which is commonly used by soldiers, and makes reference of information he said came out of the camp he is in.

He goes on to refer to the camp as being close to where the Special Anti- Crime Unit of T&T operated, and that the word reaching the camp is that ISIS is planning to detonate bombs in the malls sometime between Thursday and Sunday.