CATHY BENSON The Roanoke Times

James River High School students were dismissed early Wednesday after a threat was called in to the Botetourt County school. Some went to the nearby Burger King in Buchanan for lunch before heading home.

Authorities evacuated and searched two Botetourt County schools Wednesday after a pair of midday bomb threats.

Superintendent Tony Brads said that sometime before noon, threatening telephone calls came in to Eagle Rock Elementary School and James River High School within minutes of each other.

Botetourt County Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle said a caller warned of a bomb in the elementary school. A nonspecific danger was implied in the call to the high school.

The calls originated from a pay phone at the Unimart in the 1200 block of Jamison Avenue in Southeast Roanoke, Sprinkle said.

Officials from Botetourt and Roanoke counties and the Virginia State Police searched the schools for nearly three hours before determining the calls were a hoax.

Sprinkle said investigators are checking security cameras in the area near the store and seeking information from the public about calls that might have been made from that phone between 11 and 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office at 473-8230.

After the threat, more than 150 students from Eagle Rock were transferred to Breckenridge Elementary School in Fincastle, about 12 miles away, where they received lunch.

James River closed for the rest of the day and about 480 students, plus all the staff, were sent home, Brads said. He said James River took much longer to search and, given the time of day, it was best to dismiss everyone.