Police have determined a suspicious package at 16th and Mission streets to be non-hazardous, according to Sgt. Jesse Oropeza.
Sometime before 10 a.m., police responded to a call about a possible pipe bomb in the vicinity of the plaza. BART spokesperson Cheryl Stalter said police asked BART to shut the station down as they investigated.
The investigation also prompted the rerouting of several Muni lines.
Matt Burdon, a restroom monitor on the plaza, said he was cleaning the restroom when, around 9:30, someone told him that there were wires hanging out of a newsstand nearby. When he went to look, he found an aluminum bar which was buzzing and ticking. So Burdon called the police.
“I got afraid when I saw the wires and heard the noise,” he said. “That’s when I got away from it.”
Oropeza said officers, too, discovered a ticking sound, but did not specify whether it indeed emanated from the suspicious package or was an indication of anything amiss.
By 10:15, pedestrians who had been barred from the scene by crime scene tape began to amble back onto the empty plaza.
This story has been updated to reflect new information.