The Briggs & Stratton manufacturing facility in the Gateway Industrial Park off Highway 301 South was evacuated for about two hours Thursday while Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office personnel searched the plant after a bomb threat was phoned it.

Just before noon Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office responded to a bomb threat at Briggs that was reported via the Statesboro Fire Department, according to a post on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

“Deputies quickly and safely evacuated everyone from the building,” the post stated.

A few hundred employees could be seen outside the plant at 1 p.m.

A little before 2 p.m., the following was posted on the BCSO Facebook page: “The facility was thoroughly searched by multiple agencies and highly trained bomb sniffing k-9’s. The building is safe and no threats were found.”

Employees were soon seen filing back inside the plant.

Briggs & Stratton officials did not comment at the scene Thursday, but said a statement would be released later.

The Statesboro Briggs plant is a big manufacturer of small engines. Opened in 1995, the factory has built more than 25 million engines.