The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary seized a computer from this reading room at Memorial's Queen Elizabeth II Library. (CBC)

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said Monday that a Memorial University professor was taken into protective custody after a death threat was posted on the internet.

No arrests have yet been made in the case, in which a threat to harm a specific professor was written on a computer at the Queen Elizabeth II Library.

Sgt. Paul Davis said the threat was first noticed by a citizen in the United Kingdom who has no known connection to Memorial's main campus in St. John's. Davis said the person called practically within minutes of the threat being posted.

Davis said the RNC took the unidentified professor into protective custody, and that the deadline to harm the individual passed.

The threat was typed on a library computer. University spokesman Ivan Muzychka said MUN's crisis management team acted quickly.

"The computer that was isolated was in the Commons. It's in a section of the QEII Library which is a public area. However, that area is under video surveillance … and also our [computer] people have log-in records and things that they are looking at now. So while it is a public area, the investigation is zeroing on several people that were using the computer at a certain time," he said.

Muzychka said whoever made the threats didn't reference grades — just a general dislike and a desire to harm someone.

By 11 a.m., the police were rounding up the people on the list of those who had used the computer in the morning. No suspects have been named yet.

There is no word on whether the threatened professor will be returning to class on Tuesday.