Police closed three blocks of Channing Ave. from Hutchinson past Lincoln at 2 p.m. Thursday for a duration of over three hours for an investigation on a reported explosive device, which police later found to be without explosives.

The device was found around 2 p.m. near 1100 Channing. A policeman had walked past a vandalized car and noticed an explosive device on the ground, according to Palo Alto police spokesperson Kara Apple.

Police were sent to the scene and showed up quickly on the site of the explosive that the policeman had found.

The suspected bomb had been placed under a car near the St. Elizabeth Seton School. The school did not have any classes and only administrators were working at the time, so police evacuated the school administrators as well as other people in the area.

According to Apple, to secure the surrounding area, police had gone to all of the homes in the area and asked their residents to either voluntarily leave or stay in the back of their houses.

Police had closed Channing Avenue with police line and blocked off traffic in the areas between Elanor Pardee Park and Lincoln. Lines of police vehicles were dispatched and spread throughout the area and adjacent streets to restrict traffic around the danger area.

The bomb squad had come to investigate the explosive device, while the police had to "keep everyone out of the area until they can render it safe," Apple said.

At 4:45 p.m., bomb experts fired a specialized gun at the suspected device.

"The round that they fired at the device was to disable it without detonating," said Apple.

By 5:15 p.m., the bomb squad had determined that the device was in fact a hoax, and the street began to clear up. Police do not know yet who may have placed the false explosive and broken into the car.