Bedbugs invade a New York icon

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NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Officials say a bedbug infestation in New York has even reached the city's most iconic building, as bedbugs were found in an area of the Empire State Building.

The pests were found in an employee changing room, prompting building officials to call in exterminators, the New York Daily News reported Saturday.

"There were guys there last night, spraying down the place," a source told the News.

An Empire State Building official said the bedbugs, discovered last week, probably hitched a ride into the building on an employee's clothes.

"Like so many other buildings in New York City, the Empire State Building had a small incident of bedbugs," the building said in a statement. "The occurrence was specific to a uniform storage area in the basement of the building. The area has been treated and fully cleared."

The building is just the latest in the city to report an assault by the pests.

Among other locations reporting recent infestations were an AMC movie theater in Times Square, the Brooklyn district attorney's office, a Victoria's Secret store in Lenox Hill and the Time Warner Center, the Daily News said.