Guests allowed to return to rooms after Salt Lake City hotel evacuated

Several floors of the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City were evacuated for a short time Friday due to what police called a suspicious circumstance.

Thirteen floors on the hotel's north side were evacuated, with guests in rooms on the south, east, and west side are sheltering in place.

"Our officers were able to observe security footage which captured this incident. What we had was a man with a suitcase, walk onto the hotel property and drop off that luggage in a very suspicious way," SLCPD spokesman Brent Weisberg said.

FOX 13 News

The footage revealed he dropped the luggage off and continued to manipulate it in a way they deemed to be suspicious before running away.

After several minutes, police said an object had been examined using x-ray technology and was determined to be no threat to public safety.

Thirteen floors on the north side of the hotel were evacuated.

Evacuees were allowed to return to their rooms and the hotel began resuming normal operations, the investigation into the man who dropped the suitcase off is ongoing.

FOX 13 News

West Temple between North and South Temple was closed to traffic, but has since been reopened.

FOX 13 News

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