Suspicious Bag of Toys Prompts Evacuation of Trump Tower

Videos online show people running through the New York skyscraper’s lobby with police officers rushing them.

New York firefighters, police officers and others stand outside Trump Tower lobby in New York, Tuesday, 27 December 2016. (Photo: AP)

A stray backpack prompted the partial evacuation of Trump Tower on Tuesday. However, the bomb squad technicians quickly determined that the unattended bag which contained only children's toys were harmless.

The video posted online showed people running through the Manhattan skyscraper's public lobby as uniformed police officers waved them toward the exits.

Stephen Davis, the New York Police Department's top spokesman, said the bomb squad gave them the "all clear" around 5 pm after examining the backpack left near the entrance to Niketown, a store in the building.

President-elect Donald Trump lives in the tower and has his offices there, even though he was at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida when the bag was discovered.

His newly appointed press secretary, Sean Spicer, tweeted that officials were “back to work” following the “false alarm”.

Shoppers and visitors to Trump's namesake skyscraper described it as a chaotic scramble.

Andy Martin, a 16-year-old from the New York City suburb of Huntington, said:

It was hysteria. Police were shouting and telling people to leave.

Trump Tower, in addition to being the president-elect's home and business headquarters, contains residences, restaurants, retail stores — and a lobby that by law is open to the public and visitors daily from 8 am to 10 pm.

Police receive about 42 reports every day of so-called suspicious packages, though the number can surge depending on current events. In the days after a pressure cooker bomb exploded earlier this year in New York City, police responded to more than 800 calls of "suspicious packages".