BOSTON –
A package exploded on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston late Tuesday, and the university said an employee suffered minor injuries.
Authorities say another suspicious package was found near a popular art museum and the FBI is assisting with the investigation.
The blown up parcel was one of two that were reported to police in the early evening. Boston’s bomb squad disabled the second pack near the city’s Museum of Fine Arts, on the outskirts of the Northeast campus.
NBC Boston reported that the package exploded as it was being opened near the university’s Holmes Hall, home to the university’s creative writing program and its women, gender, and sexuality studies program. . It said the FBI was assisting with the investigation.
Authorities declined to give details, but Northeastern spokesman Shannon Nargi said in a statement that an unidentified university employee suffered minor hand injuries in the blast.
Police gathered on campus just before 7:30 p.m., and the university asked students who had gathered for an evening journalism class in the hall to evacuate the building.
Northeastern is a private university in downtown Boston. WCVB said one of its reporters, Mike Beaudet, was teaching a class there at the time. Beaudet told the station that his class had been moved out but neither he nor his students heard the explosion.
Michael Davis, Northeastern police chief, told reporters that the campus is very safe. Boston police did not say whether any other suspicious packages were found.
“We are monitoring the situation at Northeastern and we stand ready to work with the university and our law enforcement partners on any prosecutions that may arise,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said, promising “a comprehensive investigation to determine exactly what happened here.”
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both across the Charles River that separates Boston from Cambridge, said they were increasing patrols on their campuses as a precaution and urged students and faculty to report any anything suspicious.
Tuesday’s explosion marked one of the first horrors in Boston since 2013, when two bombs planted near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three spectators and injured more than 260 others.
