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Breaking News

Suspicious Package Found to Have Gone Through Security Screener at LAX

Aired March 04, 2002 - 10:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some serious breaking news to talk about now. This is just an update for a story that we first got onto about maybe 45 minutes ago or so. Word once again coming from Los Angeles, there has been yet another incident closing activities at the LAX airport. The word we have this morning is that a suspicious package, or a suspicious item, as it's also being called, was found to have gone through a security screener. We understand that the person who was with that item has been detained by police right now.

We are looking at a live picture we have been getting from our affiliate KTTV from LAX airport there. You can see, there is no activity out there on the street. A while ago, a few minutes ago, we saw what looked to be like at least, I'd say at least a thousand people or so, out on the sidewalk, because they had been taken out of terminal three. We understand we never did get clear word on whether or not the entire terminal had been evacuated.

It appears as though the street has been cleared of people. There are some vehicles that are still out there. We are also hearing from the Associated Press wires that a bomb squad has been called in to look at this suspicious package.

Now, we still don't have any firm word on exactly what it is. This is again coming after just days ago, there was a problem with an unplugged metal detector last week there at the airport, and that almost shut the airport down for a while, terminals four through eight. Now we're looking at terminal three, and I understand there maybe a problem with terminal two as well. All this got started maybe about an hour and a half ago. We are still continuing to keep our eye on that story. And once we get some word on what exactly is happening there. We'll let you know.

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