At least three floors of a San Fernando Valley hospital were evacuated on Sunday when police received a report of a duffel bag left by a man who told hospital employees it contained a bomb, police said.
Bomb squad investigators responded and the bag turned out to be harmless.
The incident began in the emergency room at 6:30 p.m. at Mission Community Hospital at 14850 Roscoe Blvd. in Panorama City, said Capt. Jeffery Burt of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police evacuated the first-floor emergency room and parts of the second and third floors of the hospital. Hospital staff transferred the patients to other rooms of the hospital away from the possible threat. Police used a water cannon on the bag.
A perimeter was set up for blocks around the hospital as a precaution, police said.
The man believed responsible has had runs ins with officers before. He was being investigated for making threats to hospital employees, apparently telling them that he had a bomb in his bag, police said.
Mission Community has 145 beds, nine of which are in the ER.
