Security scare forces US Capitol evacuation
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-09 13:32

A suspected nerve agent forced the evacuation of a U.S. Senate office building late on Wednesday until tests concluded the vapor that set off the alarm was harmless, police said.

Some 200 people, including several senators, were quarantined for three hours in a nearby underground garage while tests at the Russell Senate Office building determined they were never in danger.

The evacuated building is across the street from the U.S. Capitol where Congress meets.

Tests on the material, detected in the attic, showed it was a vapor but not a nerve agent, police said, and no one was showing any symptoms.

A worker in hazardous materials gear (L) prepares to enter the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington February 8, 2006. A sensor in the building had detected a possible nerve agent and HAZMAT teams were dispatched to test the substance.[Reuters]

"Our test results have been cleared and all the test results are actually negative," Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of U.S. Capitol police told reporters gathered outside the building at 9:40 p.m. (0240 GMT).

"Sometimes you might have a cleaning solvent which may set off a false alarm," she said.

"It was vapor," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer told Reuters.

Washington has been on heightened alert since the September 11 attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed nearly 3,000 people. The report at the time was that the Capitol was a target.

In Tokyo trading, the dollar fell on news of the security scare but recovered swiftly once the tests proved negative.

'SIGN OF THE TIMES'

Two groups of officials in hazardous material suits walked into the building a short time after it was evacuated.

"We've been through a lot of these things in the Capitol. It's unfortunately a sign of the times," Sen. Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, said on CNN after leaving the Senate garage.

Sen. Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, said: "It was a false positive. That means an alarm went off, with an indication it was initially positive but with further testing there was no agent of danger found."

Schneider said substances as benign as fertilizer could trigger a false positive result for chemical agents.

Among the several senators quarantined were Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska.

The last major scare in the Capitol occurred about four years ago when tests were carried out for a suspected anthrax attack.

The multistory Russell Senate Office building is equipped with forced-air ventilation system. It became familiar to moviegoers as the setting for such classic Hollywood films as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," issued in 1939.