‘Bomb’ at Iranian Restaurant Forces Orange Evacuation
About five homes and 10 businesses in Orange had to be evacuated Sunday morning when a device believed to be a pipe bomb was found propped against an Iranian restaurant, police reported.
After about three anxious hours, police dismantled the device and found it was a cleverly made fake bomb, said Orange Police Sgt. Timm Browne.
“There was no explosive in it. But it was rigged to look like a bomb if it were X-rayed,” he said.
No one was injured, and the evacuation was orderly and without incident, Browne said. The scene of the bomb scare was a shopping center on North Tustin Avenue near Taft Avenue.
Real Concern
“There have been no threats received by anyone (about a possible bomb), and no one has come forward to claim responsibility,” Browne added. “There was concern that this was a real pipe bomb, and there was some speculation that someone might have placed it (at an Iranian-owned restaurant) in retaliation for the San Diego van-bombing incident.”
On Friday, the wife of the skipper of the Navy ship Vincennes, escaped injury when a bomb ripped apart the van she was driving.
The Vincennes, commanded by Capt. Will Rogers III, last July mistakenly shot down an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 aboard the plane.
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