Seoul: A middle school student has been apprehended as a suspect behind an online post that claimed to have installed an explosive at a major department store in Seoul, police said Wednesday. The boy, who is in the first year of middle school, was taken into custody Tuesday evening at his home on the southern island of Jeju, hours after allegedly posting on the community website DC Inside about placing a bomb at Shinsegae Department Store in central Seoul. While no explosive was found at the department store, the bomb scare forced some 4,000 people to evacuate. The suspect, who faces charges of public intimidation, admitted to uploading the post during police questioning.
According to Yonhap News Agency, police also apprehended a 20-something man Wednesday for allegedly posting a YouTube comment the previous afternoon that claimed a Shinsegae Department Store would be blown up. Police took custody of the suspect in the southern county of Hadong, some 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The man told police that he had not installed any explosives, ending police searches at Shinsegae's department stores in Hanam, east of Seoul, and Yongin, south of Seoul, among other locations.