Student, Eldo Kim, charged for Harvard bomb hoax

A SECOND-YEAR Harvard student has been charged after allegedly concocting a bomb hoax on Monday to get out of a final exam.

Eldo Kim, 20, will appear in court today and could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000  fine, The Crimson reports.

In an affidavit, Mr Kim told authorities that he was "motivated by a desire to avoid a final exam scheduled to be held on [Monday]."

It is alleged that Mr Kim sent the emails to two Harvard officials at 8:30am on Monday waing that bombs had been placed in two of four buildings and advised to "be quick for they will go off soon."

The emails were sent using Guerrilla Mail, a free online application that generates temporary anonymous email addresses. Mr Kim also used a free application called TOR, which generates a random anonymous IP address for temporary use that is difficult for law enforcement to trace.

However authorities were able to determine that Mr Kim used TOR on the Harvard network before sending the email.

Mr Kim was sitting in class ready for his exam when the fire alarm went off.

It took hours to sweep the buildings in question before authorities could confidently say there were no explosive devices.  However exams were cancelled for the day.

Harvard is an Ivy League school located in Massachusetts.