Guests at the Holiday Inn hotel in Bulawayo were evacuated on Wednesday morning following reports of a suspected bomb threat, triggering a swift response from police and the army’s bomb disposal unit.
An ambulance
arrived at the scene, and police officers were seen rushing into the building
as hotel staff led guests to safety.
However, hotel
management later confirmed that the incident was a planned safety exercise and
not an actual emergency.
Speaking to
reporters outside the hotel, manager Nkosi Moyo said: “Just to update you, we
had received a bomb threat, which we advised the bomb disposal unit of the army
to come and assist with. The team came through and managed to curtail the
threat.”
He continued:
“Everything is now under control. I want to thank you so much and just to
advise you that this has been a mock drill, which we are required to carry out
once every six months.”
A mock drill is
a simulated emergency exercise designed to assess how effectively staff,
security teams, and emergency services respond to potential crises such as bomb
threats, fires, or natural disasters.
Moyo praised
the efficiency of the evacuation, saying: “We managed to evacuate the hotel in
10 minutes. Thank you for your cooperation. The entire process took a total of
23 minutes, after which the hotel was cleared for use again.”
Although the
drill initially sparked alarm among guests and onlookers, authorities assured
the public that the situation was under control and no real threat had been
identified. CITE
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