A police incident on Esplanade in Oak Bay has local schools on hold and secure.
The usual tranquil setting along Willows Beach was interrupted this morning as police converged at a house at 2590 Esplanade. Most of the block is marked off with police tape and forensic personnel in white suits are at the home. Police would not confirm whether they were searching for anyone, although uniformed officers were seen patrolling the neighbourhood on foot and with police dogs.
Adjacent elementary schools, École Willows Elementary and Glenlyon Norfolk School were on ‘hold and secure’ this morning.
“It is a precautionary measure,” said Cora Pamperrien, executive assistant at Glenlyon, adding they don’t know much more. “We don’t know what is going on, we just know something is going in the Estevan area.”
Parents dropping children off this morning were allowed to leave.
The hold and secure is also in place at Willows, says principal Wendy Holob.
“Secure and hold is just basically we have all the chidlren inside and we have the doors locked but we go about our business,” Holob said. “We practice all types of drills at theschool and at least once a year we go through all of them.”
Police say they’ll hold a press conference at 11:45 a.m. at the Oak Bay Police Department.
More to come…
