(The Philadelphia Inquirer posted the following article on its website on August 2.)
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police detonated a suspicious-looking backpack Sunday morning aboard a SEPTA train in Warminster, but the bag contained nothing harmful, a SEPTA spokesman said yesterday.
About 10 a.m., a conductor discovered the small backpack while performing a sweep of the empty R2 Regional Rail car. Authorities were suspicious because the bag contained wiring, spokesman Richard Maloney said.
Warminster police, unable to determine what was in the backpack, summoned officers from the Philadelphia police bomb disposal unit. The bomb experts detonated the parcel with a small explosive and found only personal items inside. The train car was not damaged, Maloney said.
“In the wake of the London bombings, we feel obligated to treat everything as potentially the real deal,” Warminster Police Chief Michael Murphy said. Train service resumed by 12:45 p.m., he said.