COEUR d'ALENE - A Rathdrum bank was robbed shortly before noon on Thursday by an armed assailant wearing a ski mask who fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Around an hour before officers were called to the scene, a bomb threat was phoned in to nearby Garwood Elementary School.

Investigators said it's unclear whether the two incidents were related.

"You err on the side of being safe," said Tom Taggart, director of business and support service for the Lakeland School District. "It didn't sound like the person who called knew the school very well, so we weren't too worried at first, but you always want to be sure."

The 350 students evacuated the building shortly after the call came in around 10:20 a.m. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Northern Lakes Fire personnel and the Office of Homeland Security responded with explosive detection dogs. They searched the school but didn't find any explosives. The students finished the day at Lakeland High School.

Just over an hour after that call, around 11:40 a.m., an unknown suspect, described as a white male in his 20s, with a slender to medium build and about 5 foot 5 inches tall, entered the Wells Fargo bank and pointed a pistol at a female teller and demanded cash.

His face was covered by an orange ski mask, and he was wearing a heavy parka and gloves. After leaving the bank, he was spotted driving a two-door, silver, compact vehicle, described as possibly a "newer" Honda that had been parked in the bank parking lot. He was last seen heading southbound on Highway 41 to westbound Highway 53, according to a press release issued by the Rathdrum City Police Department.

The bank is at 1650 Highway 41, around 7.8 miles from Garwood Elementary School, at 17506 N. Ramsey Road.

Police Lt. Tomi McLean said it's unclear if the bomb call was an attempt to divert law enforcement attention away from the bank robbery, but police officers did not respond to the threat anyway since the school is located outside city limits, thereby under the jurisdiction of the sheriff's department.

The bank is inside the city, so officers responded to the heist.

Taggart said that bomb threats have been made before in years past, but a bomb has never actually been found. It's the first call in several years, he said.

Anyone with information regarding that crime should contact Rathdrum police at (208) 687-0711 or the Coeur d'Alene division of the FBI at 664-5128.

Detective Shardel Ellis at the sheriff's department can be contacted at 446-1300.