A large area of The Forks was blocked off as Winnipeg police investigated a “suspicious package” which turned out to be harmless.
Officers were called to a public area between Inn at the Forks and the Children’s Museum at around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, after a woman alerted security to a strange package beside her van.
“I hate to bring up the word bomb but you just never know what it could be,” said Renee Delaurier-Jones, the woman who alerted authorities.
Police officers, fire crews and the bomb unit were on scene. People were told to stay away from the area.
“You don’t want things like this to be happening where anybody is, never mind children. But whoever is responsible for it, if it is something serious, that’s probably the lowest of the low. Picking a place where children are at play, where its suppose to be safe. We come to these places because we feel safe to bring our children,” said Delaurier-Jones.
“(The bomb unit) “made an examination of the package and it was determined to be innocuous,” said Patrol Sergeant Rob Duttchen.
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It’s the second bomb scare in the city sparked by an abandoned bag, within three days.
On Friday morning Winnipeg Square was evacuated for about two hours after a scare over a “suspicious package.”
Employees and passers-by noticed a backpack in a public area in the underground shopping mall at about 7:40 a.m. Friday.
The police bomb squad investigated but found the bag to contain “no viable threat,” said Winnipeg police spokesperson Sgt. Natalie Aitken, Friday.
Winnipeg police insist the timing of each incident is a coincidence and not an overreaction.
Officers said these situations would have been handled exactly the same way, regardless of the recent Boston Marathon bombings.
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