'Incendiary device' disrupts day near St. Louis (AP)
By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago
CLAYTON, Mo. - A packaged "incendiary device" exploded in a suburban St. Louis parking garage on Thursday, injuring the man who picked it up, rocking an office high-rise and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate.
The package was sitting near the 69-year-old man's assigned parking spot, but authorities wouldn't say whether he was the intended target. His injuries were not considered life-threatening, said Clayton Police Chief Thomas Byrne.
"He picked up a package sitting next to his car and it exploded," Byrne said, calling the package an "incendiary device" but not elaborating.
"We don't know who set it or why it was there," Byrne said.
The parking garage is shared by an office building and a residential building. No damage was apparent from outside the complex.
The explosion shortly after 11 a.m. was felt throughout the office building, witnesses said. Buildings were evacuated, leaving several hundred people to mingle for hours on a lawn.
A nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel was among the emptied buildings in Clayton. The busy, well-to-do suburb is the seat of St. Louis County and home to many of the region's biggest law firms, financial offices and other white-collar businesses, as well as posh hotels and restaurants.
Searches of nearby buildings did not turn up any additional devices through late afternoon.
Lisa Pogue, 51, secretary for a law firm in the office building, said she heard a boom and felt the building shake. Fire alarms went off, prompting a mass exodus.
"It was alarming," she said. "There was definitely something wrong."
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were helping local authorities investigate, Byrne said.
The Ritz-Carlton St. Louis was evacuated as a precaution, but everything was business as usual by the afternoon, said hotel spokesman Rob Amberg.
