The Metro Red Line station at Hollywood/Highland was temporarily evacuated and train service was stopped for several hours Tuesday afternoon due to a suspicious package report that prompted a bomb squad response.
An anonymous caller reported a suspicious package at the station at 2:24 p.m., Metro spokeswoman Kim Upton said. The station, at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, is in a busy area popular with tourists.
Two backpacks at the entrance to the station were deemed “suspicious enough to call our arson explosives detail,” said Ramon Montenegro of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Transit Policing Division.
A robot and bomb squad personnel responded and deemed the packages safe, Montenegro said.
The bags contained only clothing, the Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter.
Trains were turned back to the direction from which they came — to North Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles – and bus service was being set up for riders, Upton said.
On Twitter, the transit agency warned riders to “expect crowding and traffic delays.” At about 5:15 p.m., the agency said Red Line service through the station would resume, but trains would not stop at Hollywood/Highland.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was at the station at
Video from the scene showed a bomb squad truck, multiple patrol cars and officers holding their firearms, with yellow police tape keeping riders from the area.
A bomb squad robot was prepared, video showed.
A KTLA viewer tweeted a photo showing long lines at the Universal/Studio City station, where riders were waiting for a bus “bridge” to get them past the Hollywood/Highland station in the afternoon.
KTLA’s Scott Williams contributed to this article.