Reports of pipe bombs SW of Atl, GA

GBI bomb technicians were investigating a report of pipe bombs in several locations around downtown Barnesville late this morning .

FBI spokesman John Bankhead said portions of downtown were evacuated, as bomb experts were dispatched to examine "suspicious packages scattered like they had been thrown out, possibly from a vehicle."

Laura Dodgen, an officer with a United Bank in the Ingles supermarket outside the Lamar County seat, said "they've evacuated our main office and closed a lot of downtown, including the library."

A sheriff's dispatcher said five or six of what could be pipe bombs were found in the city, "but we don't know if they are are real or not."

Police officials could not immediately be reached.

"We don't what exactly we're dealing with, but we want to take every precaution until we know what these things are," said Bankhead, reached on his car phone around 11 a.m. as he headed toward Barnesville, about 50 miles south of Atlanta. *************** FOXNews has alerts--possible pipe bombs found

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/754296/posts?page=19#19

Downtown Barnesville Evacuated
Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 9/20/2002 12:12:10 PM

Authorities evacuated the downtown square in Barnesville Friday and kept students under guard at nearby schools after finding several suspicious packages shaped like pipes.

John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said the suspicious packages were reported Friday morning and that GBI and state homeland security officers are on the scene.

Five bomb technicians have been sent from the GBI offices in Greenville and Atlanta. It remains too early to determine the exact nature of the situation, Bankhead said.

Barnesville police reported finding seven or eight suspicious items outside of several downtown business. GBI agents have since detonated the items and determined them to be a hoax.

Authorities said six more locations in downtown Barnesville still needed to be checked.

All three schools in Bankhead are currently on lockdown, according to a spokesman for Lamar County Schools. Parents are being allowed to go to the schools to pick up their children.

The Barnesville sheriff is scheduled to debrief the public on the situation at a noon news conference.

The city is located in Lamar County 50 miles south of Atlanta.

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