Suspicious Package Scare In Uptown A False Alarm

Two items found in uptown Charlotte that led the city’s bomb squad to evacuate buildings and close portions of streets turned out to be false alarms.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s bomb squad responded to the intersection of Sixth and College streets after someone saw two suspicious items in a tree bed outside of Fuel Pizza just after 10 a.m.

Police shut down College Street between Fifth and Seventh streets and Sixth Street between Brevard and Tryon streets. They also evacuated the main library and several nearby businesses.

Bomb squad officials said they used a remote-controlled robot to move the items into the street and detonated them.

Officials said one item was an energy soda and the other appeared to be a pipe bomb. But when it was analyzed at the police academy, investigators determined it had just been an empty 4-inch metal tube that was capped on both ends.

The roads were reopened around 1:30 p.m.

RAW VIDEO: Bomb Squad Member Checks Out Detonated Package IMAGES: Bomb Squad Detonates Suspicious Items In Uptown