A notice is placed in front of Carrefour's Baiyun Outlet in Yunan's Kunming to evacute customers on January 8, 2011. [www.kunming.cn]

A bomb threat prompted the evacuation of customers and staff from a Carrefour supermarket here in Yunnan Province Saturday, police said.

The Baiyun Outlet in the northern downtown of Kunming, capital of Yunnan, received an anonymous phone call at 1:19 p.m., in which a man claimed he placed bombs on the second and third floor of the store, police said.

The man asked the store to transfer 20,000 yuan to a designated bank account before 3 p.m.

Police rushed to the supermarket after receiving the report from Carrefour staff.

All customers and Carrefour employees were evacuated by 2:30 p.m., but no bombs were found, police said.

Witnesses said customers were rattled when loudspeakers in the store asked them to leave as quickly as possible.

The supermarket remained cordoned off at 5 p.m. as police searched for clues. Traffic around the bustling street block was affected.

Phone calls made to the store by reporters remained unanswered.