A section of the Purdue campus was cordoned off for about two hours Wednesday morning as police disposed of a suspicious package found near Stewart Center and the Purdue Union. Purdue Police Chief John Cox says an x-ray by a bomb disposal robot showed a number of suspicious materials inside the package’s wrapping.
"Some different pieces -- there was a flashlight in there, some batteries," Cox says. "There was a high-vis belt, some other things like that. It looked like pieces of equipment that had been wrapped up to look like a device."
The robot shot a high-pressure stream of water at the package and caused a small explosion. Students inside a nearby study area in the Purdue Union were not evacuated and were not in any immediate danger from the blast, which caused little more than a loud sound and a cloud of dust from the dirt underneath the package.
Police have collected the debris left behind by the explosion and are analyzing it. Cox says he’s not aware of any threats issued in connection with the incident.