Item found harmless

A metal canister left on a downtown street Friday prompted a call to the bomb squad. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

Police responded to a suspicious package described as a 10-inch tall metal container that was left near the corner of Sprague Avenue and Washington Street about 6:40 p.m.

It did not contain any explosives, but after a bomb was found at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity March downtown, both police and the public are taking extra precautions. Sprague was closed from Washington to Bernard streets for almost two hours while the Explosive Disposal Unit investigated the container. A robot was used to take X-ray images of the object to help determine it was harmless.

The person who reported the container said it felt like it weighed three or four pounds, and seemed heavier than it should have been.

This is the second call for a suspicious package since Monday that turned out to be a false alarm. A briefcase was found near Spokane’s historic Carnegie Library on the corner of Sprague Avenue and Cedar Street Wednesday morning. It contained clothing.

Chelsea Bannach