CanWest building in Winnipeg evacuated

by Rachel Nixon | February 19, 2009 at 11:22 am

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Police in Winnipeg have evacuated people from the CanWest Place building which serves as the headquarters for the CanWest Global media company.

There are 14 police cars on the scene, creating a perimeter around the building and directing people away.

Little information has been released, but police confirmed they are investigating an "incident" and are getting people out of the building as a precaution.

Police are asking the public to try to avoid the area, the city's busiest intersection, as traffic is being interrupted.

The 33-storey building is on the north-west corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street. One report said a bomb threat had been received.

Some of the hundreds of workers who left the building said the evacuation was largely orderly and calm.

"Apparently there's a bomb threat," said Arthur Cramer, an IT specialist with Regina-based grain company Viterra, which has offices on Canwest Place's 31st floor.

Police ordered workers to leave and asked people not to gather in Canwest Place's plaza facing Fort Street.

Many building workers collected in nearby shops and on sidewalks. Some workers with an unnamed investment firm gathered around a table at a Fort Street Subway store and carried on with their work on their BlackBerries.

Ricard estimated the building would remain closed for as long as three hours.