Halifax mall evacuated over 'potential threat': police

Ottawa: A mall in Canada's port city of Halifax, which is home to the navy's Atlantic fleet, was shuttered on Tuesday over a potential threat, police said.

"At 9 a.M police received information about a potential threat to the Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth," Halifax police Constable Pierre Bourdages told AFP.

He said a "heavy police presence" was dispatched to the mall as a precaution, while the mall itself was closed for the day as the investigation turned to a residential neighbourhood a short distance from the complex.

The scare comes after security officials last month warned shoppers in Canada and the United States to be on their guard after an Islamic militant group posted a video calling for attacks on western malls.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgent group specifically threatened the Mall of America in the US state of Minnesota, Canada's massive West Edmonton Mall, London's famous Oxford Street shopping hub and two malls in France: Le Forum des Halles and Les Quatre Temps.

Also last month an American woman and a Canadian man were arrested and charged with plotting a Valentine's Day massacre at another mall in Halifax.

A third suspect in that case was found dead at his parents' home.