A&M fears bomb in package

One applicant to Texas A&M University certainly caught the top-tier institution’s attention on Thursday.

Texas A&M’s admissions office was processing a prospective student’s submitted materials on Thursday morning when an employee found wires inside a package. A note read “Flip Switch.”

The College Station emergency response team — including a bomb squad — leaped into action.

Hundreds of people evacuated the General Services Complex, which houses the university’s admissions office, at about 10:45 a.m., and the university issued a campuswide “Code Maroon” safety alert. Officials said people should stay away from the building, an outlying facility located about a mile northwest of the Memorial Student Center at the heart of campus.

A bomb squad destroyed the package, initially using a robotic device to take it outside the building. A water cannon then “(rendered) it safe,” the university police department said.

“When questioned, the investigator was told the item was a battery-operated light set, which was designed to draw attention to the included admissions application,” the police department said.

The building reopened about two hours later.

“We’re glad to have a happy and uneventful ending,” university spokesman Lane Stephenson said.