ANKENY, Iowa (AP) – The discovery of a live pipe bomb at a polling place in central Iowa, while voters were voting in a special election, forced the evacuation of the building, police said.
Police officers called to the Lakeside Center in Ankeny around 9:30 am on Tuesday found a device that looked like a pipe bomb on the grass near the center. The police later confirmed in a press release that the device was a bomb.
The banquet hall was being used as a polling place for a special election in the school district of Ankeny. The police evacuated the building, and the State Fire Department and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called. Technicians detonated the device safely, and the center was reopened around 12:30 pm – about three hours after the device was discovered, police said. No one was hurt.
Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald described the device as a metal piece with two ends and said in a post on Twitter that a couple walking his dog on Tuesday morning had discovered the device.
“I also want to add that there is no way of knowing how long ago that device was at the Lakeside Center,” said Fitzgerald in a tweet, saying officials do not know whether the bomb is related to the election.
Fitzgerald and the police said other polling stations in Ankeny were checked and no other suspected bombs or devices were found.
An investigation into who left the device continues, police said.