Drug Lab Found in Downtown L.A. High-Rise Unit

Police discovered a methamphetamine lab in a downtown high-rise apartment complex Wednesday after evacuating about 30 residents amid initial concerns that an undetermined container was a bomb.

Shortly before noon, police were called to the 14-story Metropolitan Apartments, located in the 900 block of South Flower Street, because of a report of a possible drug lab on the ninth floor, authorities said.

Officers entered a vacant apartment on the floor where they found a five-gallon container filled with a chemical and equipped with wires, they said. Other fluid-filled containers were also found.

Fearing a bomb, police evacuated the building. Officers also blocked off nearby streets, snarling traffic, as a bomb squad searched the premises.

After two hours, the squad determined the container held chemicals commonly used to manufacture methamphetamines, and not explosives, police said.

The residents expressed shock that police found a drug lab in their building. They waited anxiously outside before being allowed to enter the building.

“I thought it was a parade,” resident Hiren Patel, said of the orange cones police used to cordon off the street during the search. Patel, a real estate investment broker, left his downtown office on his lunch break to pick up some documents in his apartment--only to discover he could not get in.

Samantha Wright, a second-year student at the Fashion Institute, had just gotten out of bed when she heard the building’s intercom system alert residents to evacuate. After she found out that the cause was a meth lab--not a bomb--she felt “a little more relaxed.”

LAPD Officer Eduardo Funes said the ninth floor will be sealed off as police continue to investigate.