Explosives found in pickup in New Orleans

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NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Eight suspicious devices found in an abandoned pickup truck in New Orleans Monday contained a chemical compound that could have exploded, city police said.

Police officer Frank Robertson III told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune an officer sent to check out the Ford F-150, which had been sitting in a Whitney Bank parking lot all weekend, spotted what appeared to be incendiary devices sizzling and smoking in the truck.

Police robots detected three devices in the truck and the city bomb squad ultimately located five more, the newspaper said. One device had a timer and fuse.

The bank, other businesses and homes within a 2-block radius were evacuated, and streets in the vicinity were closed.

Robertson said the devices were taken to a laboratory for analysis and the investigation was being headed up by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, the newspaper said.

Robertson said police tried to reach the truck's owner.