SOURCE: Canberra Times
ACT police have announced that the package found at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has now been deemed non-suspicious, after hundreds of DFAT staff were evacuated following a bomb treat on Tuesday afternoon.
The bomb squad attended the site after an item was found in a staff canteen.
Hundreds of public servants forced out of their offices were told they could go home and police blocked traffic on the city's central State Circle.
The DFAT building is in close proximity to Parliament House and the canteen area is on the ground floor and open to the public.
The evacuated staff were asked to move back to 100 metres away from the building and police set an exclusion zone around the building.
A childcare centre is also attached to the building. Its staff and children, including babies, were also evacuated and were moved to a nearby church.
The R. G. Casey Building in Barton is the department's head office.
About 2780 DFAT staff work in Canberra though not all of them are based at the site.
In a statement, police said that at "about 1.45pm, ACT Policing received the report of the suspicious package at DFAT on John McEwen Crescent".
"Evacuations are underway at DFAT and road closures implemented. Members of the AFP Bomb Response Team are in attendance."
Some staff said that a backpack had been left unattended in the public cafeteria and that the building had been evacuated about 10 minutes after the backpack was noticed, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Police closed Brisbane Avenue, John McEwan Crescent and Sydney Avenue earlier in the afternoon and asked drivers to find an alternative route.
Police cordoned the area off as a standard safety precaution.
Ambulances were at the scene at the southern end of Sydney Avenue near DFAT building.
The department's media staff directed media inquiries to ACT Policing.