UPDATE: Bomb Squad Robot Detonates ‘Suspicious Package’ Found Near Portland Intersection

The Portland Police Department’s bomb squad detonated a “suspicious package” found near an intersection Monday morning.

Portland Police posted to X shortly before 9 a.m. on Monday that the bomb squad “is looking into a suspicious device” in the area of the intersection of Washington and Ocean Avenues, which lies between Portland’s Back Cove and East Deering neighborhoods.

Just after 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Portland Police announced that the Washington and Ocean Ave intersection had reopened, after a “suspicious package” was deemed not a threat by the Portland Police Department’s Hazardous Devices Unit (HDU).

In a Monday afternoon statement, Portland Police said they were alerted to a suspicious backpack outside of 785 Washington Ave at about 7:38 a.m. on Monday.

The Portland Police HDU and Maine State Police Bomb squad responded to the scene to investigate the backpack.

An x-ray of the backpack’s contents let the HDU to believe that it was suspicious and could be unsafe to handle, which led to the use of a robot to “disrupt” — or detonate — the backpack, police said.

“You know a lot of things on x-ray look different but when you see something you don’t know what it is. There’s a lot of wires that they saw, looks like fuel source, so that’s what triggered their response,” Major Jason King of the Portland Police Department told WGME Monday.

A video shared to X by WGME shows the bomb squad robot in the process of detonating the backpack.

An HDU technician in a bomb suit then inspected the backpack’s contents and deemed it not to be a threat.

The intersection of Washington and Ocean Avenues was diverted for a period of approximately four hours.

This story is breaking and will be updated with any additional information.