Suspicious bags prompt evacuation of terminals at LAX

There were three separate bags found throughout the airport.

(Image credit: iStock)

published 21 December 2016

Three terminals at Los Angeles International Airport were evacuated Wednesday morning after police received reports of suspicious packages.

At about 9:30 a.m. local time, a police dog sniffed out a suspect bag underneath a ticketing booth, prompting the evacuation of Terminal 6. Minutes later, Terminal 7 was evacuated when an unattended bag was discovered under a pedestrian bridge. As the LAPD bomb squad headed to Terminal 7, a third report came in of another unattended bag in a men's bathroom in Terminal 5, triggering an evacuation there.

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This all happened on the airport's busiest day of the year, with Grady saying close to 239,000 passengers are expected to fly out of LAX by the end of the day.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.