Bomb threat fails to disrupt Anzac service

Poppies lie on the cenotaph at Auckland War Memorial Museum. Police searched the area around the cenotaph after receiving a threat this morning that a bomb would be planted there. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Crowds gathered at the Auckland War Memorial Museum for a dawn service were unaware police had received a threat a bomb would be planted at the cenotaph.

Inspector Ian Brooker said the threat had been received in the early hours of the morning before the crowds arrived on the grounds of the Domain. He would not say how the threat had been made.

"We're treating this as a non-specific hoax as obviously no bomb went off," said Mr Brooker.

Inspector Cornell Kluessien said the area had been searched.

"The cenotaph and the area around it was searched and guarded for a while until police arrived for the event," he said.

Inspector Kluessien said he had not come across a threat at a dawn service in the past.

"It's not uncommon that people make all kinds of strange threats but a threat of this nature we will take more seriously because of all the people who were in attendance."

He said police did not know who the threat had come from and had not found anyone in connection with the threat.