Police are responding to reports of an explosion at a courthouse in Santa Barbara, California on Thursday.
The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office urged residents to stay away from the area, saying it had not yet been deemed safe. The authorities have not clarified whether anyone has been injured.
“Santa Maria Courthouse: report of an explosion. Avoid the area. The location has not been deemed safe. More information will follow,” SBSO spokesperson Raquel Zick said in a statement.
Local media reports say at least one suspect has been arrested and police are searching other locations for potential explosives.
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The incident came just hours after a Los Angeles bus was hijacked on Wednesday morning, prompting a police chase.
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A suspect fatally shot a passenger before hijacking the vehicle and then led police on a wild chase for over an hour before being apprehended by a SWAT team, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told Fox News Digital.
says the police the suspect shot at least one person before holding the driver at gunpoint and forcing him to drive north. During the initial stages of the hijacking, other passengers were seen exiting the bus, police said.
A Speed-style bus chase and chase took place in Los Angeles early Wednesday when a suspect shot a passenger and then led police on an hours-long chase. (KTTV)
The LAPD’s SWAT team eventually stopped the bus at 2:05 a.m. near South Alameda Street and 6th Street, about six miles northeast of where the first hijacking took place.
Police deployed spike strips to slow the speed and it eventually stopped before the suspect barricaded himself in the vehicle.
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The suspect was arrested and the injured victim was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition but later succumbed to his injuries, police said. Police say the incident is now being treated as one murder investigation.