Bomb Threat Shuts Down 210 Freeway

Police and Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies closed the 210 Freeway near Lake Avenue in Pasadena and a Metro Gold Line station Wednesday after a bomb squad responded to investigate a report about a suspicious package being thrown on the freeway, a report on NBC said.

Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez urged people in a tweet to avoid the area around the 210 and Lake Avenue as police and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department bomb squad were investigating.

“East and westbound lanes of 210 Frwy remain closed to a suspicious package investigation. Thx for your patience,” Sanchez tweeted.

“There’s a Suspicious package on the Gold Line at the Lake Station,” Lt. Vasken Gourdikian, Pasadena Police Department Public Information Officer, said. “I’m not sure exactly where. I can tell you it’s a Sheriff’s handle. They’re the primary on the investigation but we’re helping with pedestrian and traffic control on Lake Avenue and I believe CHP is helping with traffic on the freeway.”
Metro’s Lake Avenue Station was also closed, the NBC report said.

A tweet from the LASD’s Special Enforcement Bureau said the department’s Arson/Explosives Detail was on scene at the 210 Freeway and is deploying a robot to check on the suspicious package. It added the freeway was closed from both directions.

Officer Lucio at LASD said the department received a call about a suspicious device on the passenger train station at Lake Avenue and immediately dispatched deputies to the area.

”They located what they believed was potentially a suspicious device,” Lucio said. “They decided at that point to shut down the freeway surrounding the device and we have our arson and explosive team responding to make a determination whether or not it’s an actual live device.”

LASD is also working with CHP around the area.

NBC said the investigation comes one day after an uncorroborated threat that led to heightened security on Metro’s Red Line. The FBI has found no evidence that the threat, received through an overseas anonymous phone call, was credible, the network said.