A Wal-Mart location in Kunming was evacuated yesterday morning after receiving a bomb threat, which police are calling a hoax.

According to a Xinhua report, at 8:58 an unknown individual called the service desk at the Wal-Mart located at the Daguan Commercial City near the intersections of Renmin Xi Lu and Dongfeng Xi Lu claiming that there was a bomb in the store. A police statement said that the caller was attempting to extort money from the store.

Shortly after being notified, police arrived at the Wal-Mart and began evacuating the more than 900 customers in the store and searching for a bomb or anything suspicious. Evacuation work was finished by 9:40, according to the police statement.

Police from the Kunming and Wuhua district Public Security Bureaus searched the store for several hours before declaring it bomb-free and allowing it to resume normal operations.

Police are currently investigating the call in an attempt to find out who placed it.

The Wal-Mart bomb threat comes after last summer's deadly downtown bus bombings and the Christmas Eve explosion at Salvador's Coffee House that fatally injured bomber Li Yan, who reportedly confessed to the bus bombings on his death bed.

It is also the second incident in which large numbers of police have been dispatched to a foreign-owned hypermart in the last half year. Last November Lu Zhiwen was killed by a police sniper after stabbing three women and taking a nurse hostage at the Carrefour on Longquan Lu.