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All Clear At DIA After Suspicious Packages Found By TSA

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver police evacuated a section of the main terminal at Denver International Airport for a possible security threat Tuesday afternoon. The terminal was cleared of any threat a little more than two hours later.

"We got here, we saw that it was blocked off, we didn't know if they were investigating. We actually thought it was construction," said traveler Carmine Ladarola.

Passengers on several airlines had to delay their check-in while multiple law enforcement agencies investigated several suspicious packages.

"About 2:19 this afternoon a dog was walking through the airport and smelled something suspicious. The airport did the right thing and notified the bomb squad," said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson.

According to DIA officials, K-9s alerted the Transportation Security Administration to several suspicious packages found near the American Airlines ticket counter. It's not clear if the packages were found inside the ticket counter or near the curbside check in.

DIA terminal
The evacuated terminal (credit: CBS)

The main terminal on the west side between doors 600 and 610 were evacuated so authorities could investigate. Multiple agencies were called in, including the TSA, the FBI and the Denver Police Department Bomb Squad, which put the packages through screening.

The packages were reportedly full of jars containing spices and oils.

Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport (credit: CBS)

Affected ticket counters included: American, Aero Mexico, Air Canada, Lufthansa and British Airways. No vehicle traffic was allowed on the west side of the main terminal where many emergency vehicles had gathered.

Just after 4:30 p.m. the all clear was given and passengers were being allowed back in the area.

"Ultimately opened up those packages, found there were some jars of things that a family was ultimately taking back to Vietnam," said Jackson.

Earlier DIA officials told CBS4 that operations were normal despite the deadly terror attacks in Belgium. They said Tuesday afternoon's response wasn't out of the ordinary.

"The airport has situations occasionally and we always take a very, very conservative approach to them because we're not going to take a chance on passenger safety," Stacey Stegman with DIA said. "We do this a lot."

DIA said there weren't any flight cancellations but there were some delays.

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