Portland Bomb Scare Knocks TV Station Off Air

A suspected bundle of pipe bombs that forced evacuation of a television station and closure of two main avenues in Portland Monday turned out to be a hoax, Portland police said.

A bundle of three pipes with blasting caps and wires was found under a newspaper outside the studios of KPDX-TV, Channel 49, at about 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Police spokesman Lt. Cliff Madison said a police robot dissected the package after Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard near the Oregon Convention Center were closed off for several hours.

The MAX light rail trains near where the device was placed also were suspended. KPDX returned to the air at about 1 p.m.

Madison said bomb experts were taking no chances with the device. There have been several pipe bomb incidents in the Portland area in recent weeks.