Suspicious Package Investigation Prompts Evacs Downtown

Multiple floors of a Downtown building were evacuated as emergency responders investigated a suspicious package at a nearby bank.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) and San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) were investigating the package at a Chase Bank branch at 101 W. Broadway near First Avenue.

SDFD Battalion Chief D.T. Eddy said the package, addressed to someone at the bank, was smaller than a shoe box and had some sort of powder in it.

A Hazmat team was trying to discover what the powder was, Eddy said. An X-ray on the package also could not confirm its contents.

Investigators also performed a test on the package that involves blasting it with water at high-pressure, Eddy said.

No injuries were reported and no one was taken to the hospital.

Buildings within a two-block radius of the bank were evacuated, including the first three floors of 101. W. Broadway. Police also recommended evacuations for the above floors.

The evacuations also affected the San Diego International Fringe Festival. The theatre festival had to shut down to of its theater spaces and some patrons were being held inside the lobby of the Spreckels Theatre, located one block away from the Chase Bank Building, organizers said.

No other information was available.