AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Part of the Texas state Capitol has been briefly evacuated as police officers and a bomb squad checked a suspicious package and letter delivered to a lawmaker’s office.
The Department of Public Safety said in a statement Tuesday that a “limited area” of underground offices “was evacuated as a precautionary measure,” but later reopened when the scene “was cleared and no viable threat was discovered.”
That followed Tyler Republican Rep. Matt Schaefer tweeting that his staff was evacuated “along with other offices in the vicinity” due to a suspicious package delivered to his office inside the Capitol in downtown Austin.
The incident affected a small enough part of the building that the Capitol remained open, with tourists and others mostly coming and going as normal.