Minnesota terminal reopens after bag causes evacuation

MINNEAPOLIS — Officials say a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport terminal has reopened after a suspicious bag prompted an early morning evacuation.

Airport police evacuated the ticketing lobby at the smaller of the airport’s two terminals and closed inbound auto traffic about 5:30 a.m. Friday after a bag being scanned by screeners set off an alarm.

Airport spokeswoman Melissa Scovronski (skah-VON’-skee) says several hundred people in a non-secure area of the terminal were evacuated. A bomb squad was called and the bag was taken away for examination.

The Transportation Security Administration says suspicious items were found in the checked bag. Scovronski says the bag’s owner has been identified and is being questioned by airport police. Officials say they don’t yet know what triggered the alarm.

TSA says the security checkpoint reopened about 7 a.m.