A PSP police source said that around 9am a threat was phoned in to the Laranjeiras branch, on Rua Tomás da Fonseca, saying that “a bomb will explode this morning.”
However, it was found to be a hoax and a BPI source said that employees returned to work shortly after 11am.
The BPI spokesperson clarified that after receiving an “anonymous” bomb threat, all facilities in the capital were evacuated.
“The bank immediately informed the police and put into effect the established security procedure for these situations, evacuating all its branches in Lisbon”, it was explained in a statement to Lusa News Agency.
BPI also said that the bank’s normal operations resumed within a couple of hours as “it was a false alarm”.