UPDATE: Kentucky State Capitol cleared by KSP following bomb threat

FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) – State police went through the entire Kentucky State Capitol both outside and in.

After getting everyone out of the building, they checked it for explosives.

This morning, a bomb threat was emailed into the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office, but it wasn’t just threatening this office. It was a threat to the entire capitol and many others across the country.

These included Mississippi, Missouri, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Oregon, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Kentucky’s deputy secretary of state Jennifer Scutchfield was unfortunately the one who received the threat.

According to protocol, she reported it immediately.

That led to a hours-long evacuation. However, the building reopened around noon.

And while some states were quick to say the threats were fake, in Kentucky, long security protocols needed to be followed. While some capitol employees were pretty sure the threat was nothing, they say you can never really be too sure.

Scutchfield says, “We live in a world where you can’t always control what the next person is going to do. You try to react to it and again, protect the people we have in our office.”