Bomb Scare Closes Bus Plaza

The discovery of a suspicious package Thursday night forced the closure of the downtown Spokane Transit Authority Plaza, rerouted buses and shut down a portion of Riverside and Sprague avenues for several hours, police said.

The package, which officers described as a metal, sealed box, was discovered by STA security about 8:40 p.m. It was sitting just inside the STA building on the second floor next to a pillar, police said.

Officers evacuated the STA building and rerouted buses to West First immediately after the discovery.

Sprague and Riverside from Howard to Post also were closed until 10:45 p.m.

Bomb squad technicians took X-rays of the box and opened it to find it full of papers. , DataTimes