A 'device" exploded and damaged part of a classroom and lounge at Yale Law School Wednesday afternoon, but no one was injured, Mayor John DeStefano said.
"The explosion occurred in the ground floor of a four story building," Mayor John DeStefano said. "It occurred in a main corridor in a classroom space that appears to have been empty. There was damage to the classroom space."
"Furniture was knocked over. A wall dividing the classroom from a longue immediately adjacent to it was knocked over doing damage to that room as well."
DeStefano said there was no structural damage to the building, which also houses some residendial units and a daycare facility.
"We are very fortunate there were no injuries," said Linda Lorimer, Vice president and secretary of Yale University.
Two U.S. officials tell the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that there are no indications that an international terrorist organization set off the device.
DeStefano said the room was being used for exams in the morning, but otherwise the building and the rest of the campus was empty.
"Exams are over, dorms are empty," DeStefano said. "It's a very very quiet time."
"We heard a really really loud sound," Darren Cohen, a second year law student who was inside the building, said. "We didn't know what was happening until we left, and we saw debris on the floor... clouds of dust on the main floor."
Alexandra Alperovich, a law school student, tells the Associated Press she was sitting in the student lounge of the law school when she heard the explosion. She saw a wall to the alumni lounge collapse.
Sari Bashi, a law school student, said she was about to get into an elevator at the law school when she heard the explosion.
A spokeswoman for the FBI in New Haven told the Associated Press that members of the agency's Joint Terrorism Task Force were dispatched to the scene.
The FBI is asking anyone who was in the area of the law school on Wall St. between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and who may have seen something to call them at (203) 777 6311 or State Police at (800) 842-8200.
Lorimer said the law school will be closed on Thrusday and Friday, otherwise the university will be open as normal.
