Police in Oakland, California have evacuated residents from a large area downtown after finding a “possible incendiary device”.
The Oakland Police Department said on Wednesday it had closed off a 15-block area around City Hall, with bomb disposal experts from the county sheriff’s department on the scene.
Helicopters could be heard overhead throughout the city, which neighbours San Francisco and is part of the 10-million strong San Francisco Bay Area. The 12th St Oakland metro station was also closed.
The sheriff’s department said it was investigating a “suspicious device that looked like a potential pipe bomb” found around 12.36pm at the Ronald V Dellums Federal Building, which houses government workers.
It is the same building where a federal agent was shot dead during the chaotic George Floyd protests in downtown Oakland in summer 2020, allegedly by a member of the extremist Boogaloo subculture.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Source: The Independent
