St. Louis buildings evacuated for bomb threat

CLAYTON, Mo. -- A packaged "incendiary device" exploded in a suburban St. Louis parking garage Thursday, injuring the man who picked it up and rocking an office high-rise.

The 69-year-old victim's injuries are not considered life-threatening, Clayton police chief Thomas Byrne said.

Authorities wouldn't comment on whether they thought he was the intended target, but the package was sitting near the man's assigned parking spot in the garage.

"He picked up a package sitting next to his car and it exploded," Byrne said. He called the package an "incendiary device," but didn't provide details about its appearance.

"We don't know who set it or why it was there," Byrne said.

The parking garage is shared by one office building and one residential building. A Ritz-Carlton hotel also sits nearby in Clayton, a well-to-do and busy suburb that is the St. Louis County seat and home to many of the region's biggest law firms, financial offices and other white-collar businesses, in addition to posh hotels and restaurants.

The explosion shortly after 11 a.m. was felt throughout the high-rise office building, according to several witnesses. Buildings were evacuated, leaving several hundred people to mingle for hours on a nearby lawn.

Searches of nearby buildings did not turn up any additional devices through late afternoon.

Lisa Pogue, 51, secretary for a law firm in the office building, said she heard a boom and felt the building shake. Fire alarms went off, prompting a mass exodus.

"It was alarming," she said. "There was definitely something wrong."

Byrne said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were helping local authorities investigate.

A spokesman for the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis, Rob Amberg, said the building was evacuated as a precaution on Thursday, but said everything had returned to "business as usual" by the afternoon.

Those who live and work in the neighborhood said they weren't worried about additional packages being found, saying even without specific details, they didn't believe the explosion had been a random act.

Cheri Chod, 49, lives across the street from the parking garage where the package exploded. She was anxious to return home, saying her building has excellent security, and she wasn't worried for her safety. "I can't live that way," she said.