Boston police blow up suspicious suitcase, no threat found

BOSTON (Reuters) - Police blew up an unattended suitcase found near a U.S. Coast Guard facility in Boston on Friday, but later determined it posed no threat, Police Commissioner William Evans said.

Officials had seen a person drop the suitcase and walk away quickly, Evans told reporters, adding, "That's why we went to the extent that we did."

The person believed to have left the case, James Derepentigny, 50, was subsequently arrested and charged with planting a hoax device, police said.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Franklin Paul and Frances Kerry)