Officials Clear Suspicious Package Tossed On CTA Bus In Irving Park Tuesday

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 23, 2017 3:10PM

Flickr / Photo: spablab / CTA bus on Michigan Ave.

A suspicious package that was reportedly tossed onto a CTA bus late Tuesday afternoon in Irving Park was cleared by officials after the incident prompted street closures, temporary service interruption and a bus evacuation.

Police and fire officials responded to a call to investigate an unattended bag on at CTA bus at Kimball and Elston avenues. A fire official said that someone threw the bag into the bus then ran away, according to the Tribune.

Witnesses worried that the bag contained an explosive. “Everybody was screaming,” witness Derrick Thomas told WGN. “He threw it on there, so instinctively, you think that’s what it is.”

The bus was evacuated and crews—including a hazmat team, firefighters, bomb-and-arson police and bomb-sniffing dogs—responded to the scene, the Tribune reports.

Both the package and the scene were cleared by 6:30 p.m., according to the Sun-Times.

Kimball-Homan #82 buses were temporarily rerouted in both directions. Buses had resumed normal routes by about 7:10 p.m., the CTA said.