Grade 9 student tagged in school bomb threat

MANILA, Philippines — Police have identified a Grade 9 student as the one responsible for a hoax bomb threat at a school in Taguig City last week.

Lt. Col. Jay Guillermo of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group said they were able to trace the cell phone prepaid number used by the person behind the Facebook account “Sofia Smith” who posted that students of Taguig Signal Village National High School would be killed in an explosion.

The school management immediately suspended classes following the bomb threat.

“Social media user named Sofia Smith is a 16-year-old girl,” Guillermo said.

Police said they requested for a cybercrime warrant to pin down the suspect.

The cell phones of the family members of the suspect were also confiscated and subjected to forensic examination, according to Guillermo.

Police said they were also able to lock in the IP address and grid coordinates used by the suspect.

Authorities found that the Facebook accounts of various individuals were used to log in and out using the same IP address.

Col. Robert Baesa, Taguig City police chief, said they believe that there are other persons behind the bomb threat other than the Grade 9 student.

“We found that the suspects have a grudge against one of the teachers. One of them is a street sweeper of the city government, who was fired,” Baesa said.