Hartfield, England ? Bomb threats prompted police to evacuate the state’s 45 courthouses Friday, abruptly interrupting trials while sending judges, lawyers and people with routine court business into the streets.

A caller said bombs would go off at 2 p.m. On Friday evening, the buildings were still being searched with dogs and nothing had been found.

Public Safety Commissioner Leonard Boyle said there were five threats that were not directed against specific courthouses.

One threat was called in about 10 a.m. on a constituent phone line answered by a staff member in Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office, gubernatorial spokesman David Dearborn said.

Defense attorney William Gerace was in the Danielson Superior Court for pretrial conferences when it was evacuated before noon.

“At first they told us we’d be back in momentarily,” he said. “Then we heard a rumor there was a bomb threat. I started looking at my clients suspiciously, but they all swore they didn’t do it. We all stood around outside in the cold for an hour and a half.”

State officials said they respond to about 400 such calls a year but have never shut down all Connecticut courthouses.

State Police and state judicial marshals gather outside the State of Connecticut Superior Court in New London. A counterterrorism official in Washington said a caller to the Connecticut governor's office threatened to detonate bombs at 2 p.m. at six courthouses around the state. The courthouses, and the rest of Connecticut's 45 state judicial court buildings, were evacuated and searched.

“The calls were not specific as to particular courthouses, which of course compounded the problem,” Boyle said. “The calls simply stated that bombs had been placed in courthouses, or one call I believe said ‘judicial buildings’ in the state of Connecticut.”

Connecticut’s judicial branch has 83 facilities; 45 include courtrooms.

Chief State’s Atty. Christopher Morano said officials tried to balance the need to finish court business with the threat to public safety in deciding when to close the buildings.

“There are certain arraignments that need to be held within certain time periods and that is the major concern,” he said. “There are other speedy trial issues that might come up, but primarily we want to make sure that the conveyor belt of justice keeps moving and that timelines are met that are set forth in state law and our constitution.”

State police were working to trace the calls, Boyle said. It was unclear whether all five calls were made by one person.

In addition to criminal charges, the state will seek restitution for the money spent responding to the bomb threats from anyone arrested, Morano said.