RCMP say a bomb threat Tuesday morning at Clearspring Middle School in Steinbach was a hoax. Police say they identified a suspect and confirmed it was a prank call. As of 11:00 a.m., the school was deemed safe by RCMP and the all-clear was been given for students to return.

The Hanover School Division says the school received a bomb threat by voicemail at 8:30 Tuesday morning, the message saying the threat would be carried out at noon. Police were immediately called and the school was evacuated. The approximately 700 students were housed at St. Paul's Lutheran Church along with children from the daycare centre at the school.

Superintendent Randy Dueck says as of 10:45 a.m., about 500 of the students had been picked up by their parents and taken home. He adds classes will resume Tuesday afternoon for the students who are still at the school and those who have gone home but wish to return. 

Dueck says the division's crisis response team did an excellent job of coordinating the evacuation of the school and he is proud of how they performed.

"Things never work to a 'T' because each of these are unique and individual situations. But we have learned to develop a divisional crisis team. We learn every time, we debrief after every time to add to our learnings and, unfortunately, these are just things that we need to keep getting better at. But I'm actually quite proud of the way the team has operated today. Communication is everything and I think we have done a really good job of communication."

Dueck says St. Paul's Lutheran Church is their designated go-to place for Clearspring School in event of an emergency. He adds the church was fantastic, even providing snacks for the kids.

He says a big thanks to all the people involved in keeping the children safe during this emergency.