On Tuesday night, a package exploded on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston and the institution reported that a member of its staff sustained minor injuries. Authorities have announced that another suspicious package has been found near a major art museum and the FBI is assisting in the investigation.
The exploded package was one of two reported to the police in the afternoon. The Boston Bomb Squad responded to the location where a second parcel was found near the city’s Museum of Fine Arts, which is located just off the northeastern campus.
NBC Boston reported that the package exploded during the opening near the university’s Holmes Hall, where the university’s creative writing program is taught. The TV station indicated that the FBI was helping with the investigation.
Authorities declined to provide further details, but Northeast spokeswoman Shannon Nargi said in a statement that an unidentified staff member sustained minor injuries in the blast.
Police descended on campus just before 7:30 pm and the university asked students who had gathered for an evening journalism class to evacuate the building.
Northeastern is a private university in downtown Boston. The WCVB said one of its reporters, Mike Beaudet, was giving a lecture on the scene at the time of the explosion. Beaudet told the station that the class was held outdoors and neither he nor his students heard the explosion.
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which are located across the Charles River separating Boston from Cambridge, said they have tightened security on their campuses as a precaution and asked their students and staff to report anything suspicious.
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