Parts of Phillips Middle School were shut down for about two hours Monday while authorities investigated a bomb threat called in over the weekend.

Staff arrived at the school Monday to find a message left Saturday on the school's main answering machine indicating a bomb was to be detonated that day, said Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight.

Knight said authorities did not believe the threat was legitimate but searched the specified area of the school with a K-9 unit to make sure no explosives were in the building. Students were taken to the gymnasium while the search took place.

Authorities are investigating the incident and have identified a person of interest, but are not calling him or her a suspect, Knight said. Knight would not say if the person was a student or had been a student at the school.

Knight said that while the incident appears to have been a prank, the sheriff's department responds to all such threats as though they are legitimate, and said the perpetrator will be punished.

"There's a severe penalty that comes along with a prank like that," Knight said. "We don't take it as a prank. We take it very seriously."