San Diego State's Cox Arena was evacuated today shortly before the start of the NCAA basketball tournament when a bomb-sniffing dog detected something suspicious during a security sweep.
The dog "alerted" on what has been described as a briefcase near a hot-dog cart about 9:30 a.m. Authorities cleared the building and Fire Department bomb technicians used a robot to examine the briefcase. The alert follows an FBI warning last Friday on the possibility of a suicide bomb attacks against a major sporting event in the United States.
The arena is scheduled to host four games today as part of the NCAA men's
basketball championship tournament. The first game was scheduled to begin at
11:40 a.m., with Marquette taking on Alabama. UCLA is scheduled to play its first-round game of the tournament at about 2 p.m., taking on Belmont.
