More than 400 Bank of Valletta employees got off work 20 minutes early yesterday but ended up waiting across the road from their head office in Sta Venera for an hour due to a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax.

BOV chief executive officer Tonio Depasquale considered the whole thing to be a “waste of time” and had no doubt from the word go that the scare was just a prank.

The police received the threat and informed the bank at 3.40 p.m., after which staff followed its instructions and evacuated.

The employees packed their belongings and calmly exited the building but could not call it a day because they had no access to the garage, where their cars were parked. The procedure also required a head count.

“It was definitely not my decision to evacuate the building,” said the man who heads the bank, standing impatiently in the cold outside his office.

“This is doubtless the doing of someone with nothing better to do,” Mr Depasquale added, pointing out that “we have no indication of trouble, nor any doubts, or fights with anyone”.

BOV had never received a bomb threat, he said, commenting that so many were made they were hard to believe.

Nevertheless, the bank was not prepared to take any risks and play with its employees’ lives, he added, itching to get back to work.

The CEO remained at the entrance to the head office, with his case in hand, unable to carry on with his work as his car was in the garage too, while the rest of the staff crossed St Joseph High Road and waited by the aqueducts.

Meanwhile, the police blocked Canon Road to traffic and the Armed Forces of Malta bomb disposal unit and a fire engine arrived on site. The massive building’s three floors were checked out with the help of sniffer dogs. Fortunately, the exercise, that was expected to last a while, was concluded within an hour and the staff swarmed back, many laughing about the whole event.