San Francisco's Powell Street Bart Station Shut Down Over Suspicious Package

SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspicious package was to blame for the shutdown of BART's Powell Street station on Tuesday morning.

The station was reopened at 8:05 a.m., 30 minutes after BART police shut it down after a suspicious package was found in the street area near the station, which is located at Union Square.

A bomb squad from the San Francisco Police Department was called to Cyril Magnin and Market Street at 7:20 a.m. after the package was found in the street area. Muni trains also were effected, and police closed several streets in the area, according to a text from Officer Carlos Manfredi.

Trains heading to San Francisco from the East Bay skipped the station and stopped at Montgomery Street station, Salavar said. Trains traveling from San Francisco were stopped at the 24th Street station, where passengers were then put on separate trains and taken to the Civic Center station, Salaver said.

Police did not immediately say what was in the package. BART trains were running about 15-20 minutes behind schedule because of the residual effects of the delay

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Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4780 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rdERH. ___

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