Novelty grenade in package causes World Financial Center building to evacuate

An inert World World II-era grenade, mounted on a plaque and delivered in the mail, caused the lower-Manhattan building 2 World Financial Center to evacuate this morning.

The New York World Financial Center is located across the street from where the twin towers fell on 9/11.

According to news reports, the Japanese bank Nomura Holdings was evacuated after a suspicious package that was X-rayed appeared to reveal a grenade.

Office workers were milling about on the corner and some headed to a local bar. An employee told the Wall Street Journal, "People were a little nervous getting outside. But once we left the building everything was fine. Everyone's pretty calm right now."

The NYPD bomb squad was dispatched. Officials determined that what appeared to have been an explosive device through the building X-ray machine was actually a novelty hand grenade on a plaque that read "complaint department, pull the pin," police spokesman Paul Browne said, giving the all-clear.