Fashion Square Mall Evacuated for 3 Hours

"It's over, there's no bomb," said a security guard leaning out the window of a white security vehicle that was driving past a large group of employees who had been evacuated from Square Mall more than three hours earlier, at about 3:20 p.m. Thursday.

Hundreds of people who work at the mall, and a large number of shoppers, were asked by police to leave the mall when a suspicious-looking package was found between Macy's and department stores.

The Los Angeles police bomb squad was called in to investigate the package, said Officer Gregory Baek, while people who work at stores inside the mall waited outside and across the street.

"They didn't tell us anything," said Tony Stark, an employee of

"We were just told to get out of the place," said an employee who identified himself only as Joe.

Apple's employees were sitting on a patch of grass on Hazeltine Avenue. A large crowd of Macy's and Bloomingdale's workers were standing on Riverside Drive, next to the mall.

Security guards had put up yellow tape outside some of the entrances. People who attempted to drive into the mall were surprised to learn that it was shut down and sealed off.

"What's going on?" asked a woman in a car. She was told that the bomb squad was inside.

At 6:20 p.m., police determined the suspicious package was not an explosive device or a threat, and the mall was reopened.