Suspicious bag shut Hamilton city centre down for five hours

Published on Stuff.co.nz and in the Waikato Times Hamilton City Centre was blocked by police for five hours after a suspicious bag was found in the IRD building on Bryce Street in Hamilton.

Police Senior Sergeant Pete van de Wetering said at about 7.30pm, the bomb disposal personnel, also referred to as defence personnel, had destroyed the bag using a robot.

"We will be closely examining what remains of the contents of the bag and the bag itself and also taking a good look at CCTV footage of the building, both inside and out."

An IRD employee alerted police to the bag at 2.45pm on Friday and within half-an-hour, police decided to evacuate the building and block off the surrounding area.

"We've made some initial inquiries and viewed some CCTV footage which causes us to be a little bit curious as to why the bag was left there, and because of that uncertainty, we've then acted on the side of caution. I'm not in a position to explain what we've seen on the CCTV footage. Our interest now will be to analyse it for ourselves."

Intersections at Bryce St, Victoria St, Ward St and the Claudelands Bridge were closed to the public and under police control for the majority of the afternoon.

"We will now investigate to understand why both the public and police have been inconvenienced to this extent and if someone is to be held accountable, they will be," he said.

The cordons were lifted by 8pm Friday.