A Suspicious Package Near Twitter Prompts San Francisco Street Closing

A suspicious package in downtown San Francisco Wednesday morning prompted street closure for two hours in an area that’s home to many startups and the headquarters for Twitter.

Ultimately the San Francisco Police Department decided the package wasn’t hazardous.

“It was not a bomb,” Sergeant Michael Andraychak said. “If it had been a destructive device the investigation would’ve been ongoing a bit longer and there would’ve been other things transpiring.”

The SFPD confirmed to Re/code that it received a call at 9:45 am about a backpack hanging from a tree in front of Dolby Laboratories at 1275 Market Street. The police halted underground Bart and Muni service and aboveground buses as they investigated the object.

Passersby reported seeing a bomb detection truck outside and said that Market Street was roped off from 8th Street to 10th Street as police investigated the threat. Several people posted pictures and Periscoped the closure. A Twitter spokesperson told Re/code that it didn’t evacuated its staff because it didn’t receive a threat. The Walgreens on the corner next to the Twitter building did evacuate.

https://twitter.com/moniquemadrid/status/641673297432739840

https://twitter.com/banjo/status/641673289262239744

In addition to Twitter, this mid-Market area of town is home to many startups like ridesharing service Uber, payments company Square, dating service Zoosk and customer support company Zendesk as well as tech co-working spaces like Runway. It’s also two blocks away from where Apple was announcing new product updates at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

This story has been updated with new information, including a correction to an earlier version that stated a bomb threat sparked the street closure when instead it was a suspicious package.

Update: A spokesperson from Dolby Laboratories has provided this statement:

[W]e just received the all-clear notification from the SFPD and have since resumed normal operations. We take safety at Dolby seriously, and appreciate the efforts of our local police to help ensure the safety of our employees in the area.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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