Bag near San Francisco Federal Reserve said safe

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A suspicious suitcase found near
the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank prompted police to
reroute traffic and evacuate some nearby shops for a short time
on Monday before declaring the area safe.

Police briefly rerouted traffic and BART subway trains
skipped the nearest station. Some stores on Market Street but
not the Federal Reserve or big office buildings were evacuated,
police said.

Roughly an hour after a passerby first reported the object
to police at about 11:15 a.m., bomb squad investigators
determined it was safe to return to the area near the
Embarcadero waterfront. The brown suitcase was removed.

Carol Eckert, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Federal
Reserve where about 1,200 people work, said workers had to
briefly use alternate exits.