The Empire State Building, the tallest structure left standing in New York after the collapse of the twin World Trade Center towers, was briefly evacuated late on Wednesday because of a bomb scare, but local television stations later said it was only a hoax.
People were evacuated from the 102-storey building but 10 minutes later said they had been allowed back in. Local television stations filmed traffic moving again normally down Lexington Avenue, two blocks from the building.
Earlier, television stations said a suspicious package had been discovered on the 44th floor of the building and bomb-sniffing dogs had gone in. An employee of CBS television who works on the 83rd floor said: "There were very few people in the building at the time, and security today had been much higher than normal. The building was almost in darkness tonight after being closed to the public since Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center." Bureau Report