Austin police say the package found at a Goodwill store in the southern part of the Texas city was an incendiary device and was not related to the recent string of package bombs that have detonated in the city.
Police responded to a call of a possible explosion at around 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday evening.
Upon arrival, they discovered that a Goodwill employee had found items that he felt didn’t belong in the store, Austin assistant police Chief Ely Reyes said. The employee then asked a fellow employee to dispose of the box.
“That employee took the box around the corner and upon looking inside of it, it had two small devices that were artillery simulators that looked like some type of military ordinance or some type of momento,” Reyes explained. “The employee handled one of the devices at which time it initiated and the employee sustained an injury.”
He said: “This was an old military type ordinance that initiated in this person’s hand.”
A man in his 30s was transported to hospital by officials and authorities evacuated a grocery store and shopping centre nearby.
Gary Davis, president and CEO of Goodwill Texas, stood outside a police barrier huddling with other Goodwill employees. He said the device was contained in a bag and detonated when a worker moved it.
“We put all the donations we get in a big cardboard box. He pulled something out in a bag, completely normal, and the device went off,” Davis said.
He added: “In this town, if an incendiary device goes off, everybody just scatters and panics. We’re all on edge.”
Early on Tuesday, a package filled with nails and metal shrapnel exploded at about 12:30 a.m. on a conveyer belt at FedEx sorting center in Schertz, near San Antonio, knocking a female employee off her feet, officials said. The package was being sent from Austin to another address in Austin and passed through a sorting center in Schertz, about 65 miles (105 km) away.
Authorities said the worker was treated for her injuries at the scene.
Later in the morning, authorities were alerted to a suspicious package at a FedEx facility in Austin. Police and federal agents called to the scene found the package contained a bomb and it “was disrupted by law enforcement,” according to a joint statement from Austin police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
READ MORE: Package bound for Austin containing nails, shrapnel explodes at Texas FedEx facility
No injuries were reported, the statement said.
The three agencies said investigators had determined that the two FedEx bombs “are connected” to the four package explosions that occurred between March 2 and March 18 in Austin, killing two people and injuring four others.
*With files from Associated Press and Reuters
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