A public building in Italy's Rome was evacuated on Thursday after someone said there was a bomb inside it, local media reported.

Some 300 employees and citizens went down to the streets in a center-eastern area of the capital after someone made a phone call to a local city hall saying there was a bomb in the building, said a police official, Sandro Medici.

Traffic in the area was temporarily blocked to avoid any casualties.

"We received a telephone call of a man who said there was a bomb inside, and we immediately alerted police. Something like this had never happened before," Medici was quoted by ANSA news agency as saying.

In the evening, police said after two inspections that the threat was a false alarm, and all activities were restored in the building.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet