Bomb Scare
44 Wall St. was evacuated following a bomb scare that turned up a hoax device. Google Maps

A bomb scare prompted the New York City Police Department to shut down a subway entrance on Monday afternoon as it evacuated a Wall Street building, but later deemed the suspicious package a hoax device.

The NYPD bomb squad evacuated 44 Wall St. in the Financial District of New York City, causing workers to rush out onto the streets in Lower Manhattan.

An NYPD spokesman told International Business Times that the suspicious package was “not a bomb.”

Panicked onlookers described seeing an object between a subway entrance and 44 Wall St.

One witness said a police officer almost shot someone on their cell phone who was standing on the balcony of Cipriani Wall Street, across the street from the evacuated building, but this couldn't be independently verified.

“All I saw was the NYPD bomb squad truck go whizzing by,” another witness said. "They were asking questions but nobody knew anything at the time."

Monday's bomb scare was the second in three months on that section of Wall Street. The bomb squad was called to the Trump Building at 40 Wall St. in March. That investigation also turned up no bomb.

UPDATE 1:43 p.m. EDT: As the NYPD responded to the Wall Street bomb scare, a squad was also dispatched to Fulton Street for a similar incident involving "plastic figures attached to a wire."

"The same thing happened at the same time on Fulton Street," the witness said.