Multiple sources from Seoul, South Korea, report that a huge Genshin Impact event has been evacuated following a bomb threat. This reportedly stems from an anonymous Twitter user, who shared an image of what they claimed to be a bomb. In a Sinophobic tweet, they reportedly said they wanted to kill Genshin Impact players, and implied they had already planted the bomb in the arena.
Reports on the incident are only just coming out and are largely in Korean, but we can certainly see that players were evacuated, and the event put on hold while emergency services investigate the threat. The most recent report states that no bomb was found and the threat has been deemed a hoax, but the incident may still cause disruption.
One English-language report courtesy of Yonhap News Agency, claims that around 200 attendees were evacuated due to this bomb threat. Both this report and screenshots of the alleged attacker's Twitter state that the threat read as follows: "A bomb has been set up on Saturday. It will explode when the time comes."
The message was accompanied by images of what appears to be an explosive device, as well as images of the location the event was being held in. The account had previously made anti-Chinese statements too (as noted on ResetEra), pointing to this as being the motive for the threat.
However, Globale has since reported that there were no explosives, and Genshin Impact fans are able to return to the event. Security does seem to have been increased, with attendees having their bags checked before returning. A planned cosplay parade may be cancelled, but otherwise, organisers hope tomorrow’s schedule won’t be affected.
Twitter user @sssa5573, who was at the event, has shared images of emergency services at the scene. One image suggests that a police force that handles such matters has arrived too, so it appears that the threat was taken seriously.
The account that made the threat has since been suspended, so we don’t know if they’ve made another statement since the evacuation or reentry. The last word on this matter comes from Yonhap News Agency, which reports that police are actively looking for the individual. Indeed, they are likely to face arrest for this incident, as even without the existence of an actual bomb, the threat would have caused panic among fans, and required a heavy police and firefighter presence.