US

Bomb Explodes At University Campus In Boston, FBI Investigating

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A package mailed to Northeastern University in Boston exploded on Tuesday evening, injuring one member of the staff and prompting an evacuation of surrounding buildings, according to university authorities.

The explosion occurred shortly after 7:00 PM at Holmes Hall, where the university’s creative writing program is housed. One 45-year-old member of staff, who first opened the package, was treated for minor injuries and is expected to recover, per Boston EMS.

Shortly after receiving 9-1-1 calls stating a “bomb” had gone off, Boston’s Police Department responded at 7:18 PM and deployed the bomb squad to sweep the building, the BPD said in a press statement. Nearby buildings were evacuated, while the FBI said that it was collaborating with local police on the investigation, its Boston Field Office wrote on Twitter.

The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, established after 9/11 to coordinate terrorism investigations among different law enforcement agencies, is involved.

Special agents & officers with #FBI Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, including our Special Agent Bomb Technicians & our Evidence Response Team, are assisting @bostonpolice in this ongoing investigation. https://t.co/huKQmoCfMi

— FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) September 14, 2022

Holmes Hall is located in the center of Northeastern’s campus, which is located in northern Boston and has 16,000 enrolled students.

FBI sources later told CNN that the plastic-box package contained a note attached to it, which they described as “rambling” in content. The note allegedly criticized Facebook co-founder and Meta, Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg as well as the “relationship between academic institutions and virtual reality.” Zuckerberg once attended the nearby Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Later on Tuesday night, Northeastern released a statement saying that the situation had been “contained” and the campus was open for business on Wednesday.

In 2013, a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon – where two homemade bombs were detonated near the finish line – killed three and injured hundreds. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two living suspects, was convicted of terrorism offenses and was sentenced to death, while the other suspect, his brother Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police three days after the bombing.

No information about a suspect has been released. Responding to a press inquiry from the Daily Caller News Foundation, the Boston Police Department said it had “no updates” at this time. Northeastern University’s Virtual Reality organization, as of writing, has not responded to a press inquiry.