Photo by Scott McCloskey Members of the Wheeling Police Department and the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office investigated a bomb threat sent Thursday to The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register. Here, Wheeling Cpl. Garret Pugh walks his dog, Declan, around the outside of the newspapers’ offices at 1500 Main St., while Belmont Deputy Chad Kulpa and his dog, Tuco, assist. The email was one of several sent as a hoax to businesses in the Ohio Valley and across the nation.

WHEELING — Several businesses in the Ohio Valley received Thursday the same email containing a bomb threat hoax that evacuated organizations across the country as they took measures to make sure employees were safe.

The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register was one of the businesses that received the email, which was sent to employees. Members of the Wheeling Police Department dispatched its K-9 unit to the newspapers’ offices at 1500 Main St. The dogs did not find any evidence of an explosive device.

Area hospitals also were among the businesses that received the threat. Police here said they were aware the threats were part of a wave of bomb threats emailed to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggering searches, evacuations and fear — but there were no signs of explosives.

Authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.

Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money. They were not considered credible.

Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” They were sent from a spoofed email address. The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin.

“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.”

Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam.

The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. One of the emails wound up in a spam filter, Boise Police Chief William Bones said.

The FBI said it is assisting law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the threats.

“As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety,” the FBI said in a statement.

Across the country, some schools closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown because of the hoax. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia.

The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit.

“Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today,” Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. “They are not targeted toward any one specific sector.”

Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a “national hoax.”

Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school.

The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun.

There is nothing to validate the threat was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999, according to Sheriff’s spokesman Mike Taplin.

Two dozen other Colorado schools also were temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated.