A bomb threat at the offices of ­Valletta Fund Management in Mrieħel yesterday led to the evacuation of the building and neighbouring office blocks.

About 300 employees from VFM, Forestals and Deloitte had to stand outside in the cold for about an hour while members of the Armed Forces of Malta’s bomb disposal unit searched the building. Nothing was found.

An anonymous caller phoned police headquarters at about 10.30 a.m. saying there was a bomb at the offices of VFM, a subsidiary of Bank of Valletta, sources said.

The police immediately phoned the offices and instructed the company to clear the building. As a precaution, employees in the adjacent building were also evacuated.

“If the bomb does not kill us, we will die of the cold out here,” one shivering employee said as he waited outside for the AFM to scour the premises with the help of police sergeant Ross, a Labrador sniffer dog.

Employees were allowed back into their offices about an hour later.

VFM has been at the centre of controversy over the La Valette multi-manager property fund’s poor performance. Investors accused the bank and its affiliates of mismanagement after the fund’s poor performance left investors reeling at their losses.

Bomb threats have taken on more significance following the explosion at the Transport Malta building on December 2 in which Major Peter Ripard lost his left leg. A few days later, a bomb was found in an abandoned warehouse in Qormi and was deactivated by army experts. Earlier this week, court cases grounded to a halt on Wednesday for two-and-a-half hours after two successive bomb threats were received. Searches yielded no explosive devices.