Multiple people were hurt on Wednesday when an explosive device was detonated in a courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif., and one man described as a “person of interest” was detained immediately after the explosion, the authorities said.
A spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said on X that law enforcement responded to a report of an explosion shortly before 9 a.m. at the Superior Court of Santa Barbara in Santa Maria, Calif., a city around 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, near the California coast.
Local news media reported that the man threw a bag into a courtroom, which exploded.
Earlier, the sheriff’s office said that two people had sustained “non-life-threatening injuries.”
Six people were being treated at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, said Joe Bailey, a spokesman for Dignity Health, which operates the hospital. It was not immediately clear if those included the two people mentioned earlier by the sheriff’s office.
Five patients initially arrived after the explosion, and the sixth arrived at around 1:30 p.m. local time, Mr. Bailey said.
Three of the people at the hospital were in fair condition and three others were in good condition, Mr. Bailey said. He declined to elaborate on the nature of their injuries or offer additional comment.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said on X that a bomb team was investigating at the scene. The man who had been detained, and was being interviewed, was believed to have acted alone, the office said.
Law enforcement and other emergency responders evacuated parts of the courthouse complex on Wednesday morning, according to local media.
Noozhawk, an outlet covering Santa Barbara news, reported that law enforcement had removed a suspect from the scene shortly after the explosion was reported.
“The suspect was inside the court building and threw a bag in front of Department 9, which is the arraignment courtroom,” Darrel Parker, the superior court executive officer, told the outlet.
“Whatever was in the bag exploded,” Mr. Parker said.
A message on the court’s website said that the Santa Maria campus was closed for the day and that all events on the calendar had been canceled.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on X that his office and the state’s Office of Emergency Management were monitoring the situation.
The City of Santa Maria said that its City Hall, finance department, city attorney’s Office, public library and recreation and parks department would be closed for the day in response to the incident.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that it was on “heightened alert” and would provide extra patrols at the 37 courthouses where it is in charge of security. “At this time there are no credible threats to any courthouses in Los Angeles County,” the department said in a message on X.
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