(Adds details; quotes)
SALMON, Idaho, May 29 (Reuters) – A federal courthouse and
office building in I daho was evacuated on Tuesday and nearby
streets cordoned off after authorities discovered a package
suspected to be a mail bomb, federal and local officials said.
A mail clerk alerted marshals about a suspicious package
delivered to the building by the U.S. Postal Service in
Po catello an d an initial X-ray inspection of the parcel
suggested it may contain an explosive device, a U.S. Marshals
Service supervisor said.
Nearly 40 workers in the building were ordered to leave as a
precaution while authorities examined the package, which came
from an unknown sender, said Darrin Lambert, supervisor of the
Marshals Service office in Pocatello.
“We were unable to clearly identity the device or possible
device,” Lambert said the package. It was not immediately clear
to whom the package was addressed and whether it bore a return
address.
No one was reported hurt in the incident, which unfolded in
the early afternoon.
The building is located in the business district of
Pocatello, a city of about 58,000 residents in southeastern
Idaho that is home to Idaho State University. The building
houses offices of the U.S. attorney and probation officers in
addition to the federal courthouse.
Police closed off streets within a one-block perimeter of
the courthouse while a bomb squad was brought in to remove the
package and dispose of it.
Pocatello police spokeswoman Diane Brush said a
bomb-disposal robot was sent into the building to retrieve the
parcel and place it into a special canister for detonation in a
nearby parking lot.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and
Cynthia Johnston)
