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Update: Bomb squad destroys 'suspicious package' (with photos)

The Capital Times  —  7/29/2008 9:52 pm

The Dane County bomb squad destroyed a "suspicious package" found near the Capitol Square Tuesday afternoon.

"The Dane County bomb squad has done whatever it needs to do to detonate it," said Madison Police Department spokesman Joel DeSpain shortly after 5 p.m.

That came several hours after a postal worker discovered a flaming or sparking backpack near a tree in front of Walgreens on the Capitol Square, 15 E. Main St., according to law enforcement officials.

The postal worker spotted the bag and extinguished the flames with Gatorade.

Madison resident Mary Kelly was sitting on a bench directly across the street from where the package was found.

"I noticed a pair of boots on the sidewalk and what appeared to be a backpack hanging from the tree," Kelly said.  "Pretty soon police arrived and started taking pictures and sealing off the area."

Law enforcement cordoned off with police tape the immediate block of Main Street and the adjacent blocks of King and Pinckney streets.

Much of the building that houses Walgreens as well as several offices was evacuated as the bomb squad considered what to do with the package.

Only offices on the Capitol Square side of the building were evacuated, and the order had no effect on the customers at Johnny Delmonico's Steakhouse on the corner of Pinckney and Doty streets nor on offices in the Doty Street side of the evacuated building.

DeSpain said the investigation into the strange package is continuing and said "it is too premature for us to even know what was in," the backpack or whether it was related to other downtown bomb scares in recent years. 
  
Madison Police received the initial call about the incident at 1:53 p.m., DeSpain said.

The Capital Times  —  7/29/2008 9:52 pm