The New Hampshire State Police Bomb Squad responded to a suspicious package on Main Street in downtown Concord on Friday afternoon.
The brown package was found perched on a window sill outside the Merrimack County Savings Bank branch, just a block from the New Hampshire State House.
Bomb squad members in full gear first used a portable x-ray tool to examine the box, which was smaller than a loaf of bread.
“The x-ray at the time did not give us the level of confidence that it was not a threat, where we felt comfortable opening it by hand,” explained Sergeant Jeff Dade, bomb squad commander for the New Hampshire State Police. “So then what we want to do is open it remotely.”
Bomb squad members used a small detonating device called a "disruptor" to open the box, causing a loud pop that echoed down a cordoned off Main Street.
Dade says the package was found to contain an electrical ballast, a small metal box with wires sticking out of it. The package posed no threat to the public. It is unclear why it was left on the window sill.
Given the recent string of deadly explosions in Austin, police said it was right to take every precaution.
