A stray backpack locked down a chunk of Georgetown over the weekend, leading to forced evacuations of restaurants and the cordoning off of several key streets.
Firefighters were passing by the Georgetown Park mall about 9 p.m. Saturday when they saw the abandoned pack on the sidewalk outside of an H & M clothing store.
They called police, who called in the bomb squad. The bomb squad ordered M Street closed, but it took them more than an hour to choke off traffic in every direction.
M Street was shut down from the Key Bridge to 31st Street and Wisconsin Avenue was shut down from K to Prospect streets. Patrons in restaurants were locked in.
Police ordered pedestrians off of the thoroughfares and threatened to arrest anyone who didn’t respond immediately, according to witnesses on the scene.
Within 90 minutes, police set off a contained explosion that destroyed the backpack. Life was allowed to resume by 11 p.m., a passerby said.
