South Korean police said they found no explosives at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome after searching the site yesterday following a reported bomb threat against Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
About 150 police officers used sniffer dogs, X-ray detectors and other equipment to search the stadium, but no suspicious objects were discovered, Seoul’s Guro Police Station said.
Police said they acted on a tip that there was a threat targeting the Japanese star, but did not elaborate.
Photo: Reuters
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the search happened after South Korea’s consulate general in Vancouver received an e-mail threatening to detonate an explosive at the Gocheok stadium during the MLB opening game between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres that started later yesterday.
It is the first time that MLB has opened the regular season in South Korea.
Yonhap said the sender of the English-language e-mail claimed to be a Japanese lawyer.
Yonhap cited police as saying they suspected the e-mail might have come from a person who last year allegedly sent a number of similar threats while claiming to be a Japanese lawyer.
“It’s unfortunate that the threat of a bomb even being a possibility, but I have complete confidence in Major League Baseball and the security here that we feel safe,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he did not receive any specific information about the threat, and was told to “just keep working on the baseball game.”
Police and bomb-sniffing canines were seen searching the seats and hallways of the stadium in the morning. The search did not appear to affect game preparations, with ground crews checking the fields and K-pop performers rehearsing in the outfield.
Guro police said about 350 officers were to be deployed by the time the Dodger-Padres game began.
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