Anime Expo 2011: South Hall Evacuated Temporarily on Saturday

By Keith Plocek Sat., Jul. 2 2011 at 11:53 AM

Shannon Cottrell

We've just received word that the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center has been evacuated in the middle of Anime Expo 2011. Rumors are swirling of a suspicious package or a bomb threat, as they generally do in these situations. We'll update with more concrete details whenever they're available.

UPDATE: A member of the AX staff told LA Weekly's Liz Ohanesian he can't go into detail, but it's a "safety issue." They just had to get everybody out. West Hall at the Convention Center is still open.

Shannon Cottrell

Shannon Cottrell

SECOND UPDATE: "I don't know what's going on," says Cosplay in America's Ejen Chuang. There's still a lot of people inside the exhibit hall, he says, a little less than would be expected on a Saturday, but there definitely are still people inside South Hall. "It's kind of normal in here actually."

THIRD UPDATE: The bomb squad is on the scene.

Shannon Cottrell

Shannon Cottrell

FOURTH UPDATE (12:34 p.m.) : The police are letting people back into the exhibit hall, just not the food court yet.

FIFTH UPDATE (12:51 p.m.): The South Hall is now back open.

SIXTH UPDATE: (1:04 p.m.): A police officer tells Ohanesian the suspicious package was a bag of clothes and unidentifiable liquid. Someone apparently came back to pick it up.

Tags:

Anime, Anime Expo 2011, Bomb Threat, Suspicious Package

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ConGoer

Oh wow, I had no idea it was this serious. Con staff said electrical problems, and we were leaving South Hall anyways.

Jenn Reveles

Hmm...Is that what all that chatter on the speakers was?? I was in the Gaia Panel in 512 and no one said "boo" to us! The only way I knew anything weird was going on was when I used the restroom and you could hear the announcement Matt Teng mentioned on the red fire alarm speaker. There were over a hundred folks sitting in the halls waiting on the next Vic Mignogna panel as Gaia was at it's last 15 minutes and doing Q & A.

boxxcat

i was told it was food poisoning...i thought that was suspicious, as you don't need to evacuate for a food poisoning.

Matt Teng

i was there, some really loud annoying speaker was telling the idiot to go pick up their black and pink bags in the lobby... LAME!

Teal

I had 2 day access so I don't really mind this TOO much, but this was my best friend's only day and she hadn't been in the two years previous, we ended up leaving after only 3 hours, is their any chance she could be comped for a ticket for next year or something?

AM2 convert

If money is an issue, AM2 is free. (^_^)

DougieB

A cop at he scene told a bunch of us what it was, then the later the convention staff would say "electrical problems" or "we don't know and we couldn't tell you if we did"

I understand not wanting to cause a panic, but if there's a threat, we should at least have the right to know.

Tori Long

I agree, i was in and out of Anime Expo all day and i saw the box, a black crate with a pink bag, i didn't expect them to make such a big scene, but yes they should have told us.