Navy corpsman held for school bomb threat in San Clemente

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Navy Corpsman Daniel Morgan was in custody Wednesday for allegedly writing he planted explosives at San Clemente High School in California, officials said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department evacuated 3,200 students and 180 staff to the school's stadium at about 9 a.m. after the writings were discovered in Morgan's Camp Pendleton barracks when he failed to report for duty, the San Clemente Times reported.

Bomb squads with dogs first checked the high school gymnasium for explosives, then moved the evacuees into the gym.

Morgan, 22, was taken into custody around 1 p.m. and evacuees were allowed to leave the campus, Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Doan said there was no apparent connection between Morgan and the school but they were taking his writings seriously.

"Many times you get crank calls on the first day of school but this is turned up a notch because this is somebody in the military who would have access to explosive devices," Amormino said, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Sheriff's officials did not release any information on Morgan's motive or details of his alleged threats.