Texas State Capitol briefly evacuated due to suspicious package

Several offices at the State Capitol in the US' Texas were briefly evacuated on Tuesday due to a suspicious package.

The incident came days after a man in the US state of Florida was arrested for sending a wave of suspicious packages containing potentially explosive devices to critics of US President Donald Trump, reports Xinhua news agency.

The staff members were asked to leave offices in part of the Capitol building, located in Texas capital city of Austin, but the majority of the Capitol grounds remained open to the public.

Texas State Representative Matthew Ray Schaefer, who is serving on the Defense and Veterans' Affairs and Urban Affairs committees, wrote on Twitter that his office and other offices in the vicinity "were evacuated" due to a suspicious package that was discovered around noon.

The evacuation order was lifted hours after the Texas Department of Public Safety determined that the package delivered to a state representative's office posed "no viable threat."

--IANS

vc