ATLANTA - A bomb scare scattered hundreds of workers Tuesday from a downtown federal building that houses Internal Revenue Service offices, but authorities later determined the suspicious package that caused the evacuation was harmless.<br />
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A fire alarm went off, nearby streets were closed and a daycare in the Peachtree Summit Federal Building was emptied after mailroom workers X-raying packages saw one they thought was suspicious. But authorities later determined the package contained a glass decorative object, said Atlanta Police Officer Otis Redmond.<br />
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Workers who spent more than an hour on nearby sidewalks were allowed Tuesday afternoon to go back into the 31-story building that sits at a busy intersection and overlooks the interstate. Daycare workers were seen rolling cribs full of small children back into the building.<br />
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"It was scary. We were just doing our daily routine when we saw people start evacuating, and the fire alarm went off. They told us it was a bomb threat" said Marie Manley, 38, a management analyst for the U.S. Social Security Administration.<br />
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The scare sent workers streaming onto the sidewalks and brought fire trucks and police cars to the building. Members of a bomb squad put on their bulky suits to investigate while evacuated workers milled around.<br />
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The building that houses several federal agencies also sits adjacent to a station of the Atlanta underground transit system, as well as a hospital.<br />
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It is routine to X-ray packages that come into the mailroom.
