BIROBIDZHAN, Russia -- A 73-year-old kindergarten teacher in Russia's Far East has died during the evacuation of a building following false bomb-threat phone calls.
In the latest spate of anonymous bomb threats to Russian institutions, dozens of kindergartens were evacuated in the Far Eastern cities of Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on December 19.
The buildings were later searched and no explosives found.
In Birobidzhan, the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, eight kindergartens were evacuated after unknown individuals told authorities by phone that bombs had been placed in kindergartens around the city, local authorities told RFE/RL.
They said that the elderly kindergarten teacher, a woman whose name was not given, felt unwell while evacuating the children from the school where she was working.
An ambulance was called to assist her, but medical personnel were unable to save her life.
The exact cause of her death is not clear.
The outside temperature in the region is around minus 26 degrees Celsius.
Anonymous bomb threats also prompted the evacuation of nearly 50 schools and kindergartens in the Moscow region on December 19, according to TASS.
Last week, dozens of courts in the capital, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were evacuated following similar false bomb-threat phone calls.
