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Security device from shoes causes downtown bomb scare

ATLANTA — A busy downtown Atlanta street is back open after someone found a beeping device in a trashcan Friday morning.

Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach, who was at the scene, said Marietta Street was closed for hours and a state office building at 2 Peachtree Street was evacuated.

Gehlbach said hundreds of people were forced out of the building.

The Georgia State Police said that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation bomb squad was called to the scene, along with Capitol police and Atlanta police.

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Authorities later cleared the scene after discovering the device was a security device cut off from a pair of shoes purchased online. One of the employees said the device started to beep after she cut it off and threw it into a trash can at the building.

The building is home to the Georgia Department of Human Services, Public Health and Division of Family and Children Services.

Gehlbach spoke with the DFCS director on the sidewalk. The director had evacuated, along with his 200 employees.

"I think the dilemma for us is we have a lot of the state's business to do. And whenever we have to evacuate an entire building, that holds us up from doing our work. At the same time, we want to make sure all our folks are safe," Tom C. Rawlings said.

The all-clear was given before 11 a.m.

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