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NORAD evacuated after suspicious packages found

Officials say the packages were removed but are still undergoing tests. The evacuation lasted about 4 1/2 hours.

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Rick Wilking/AP
A visitor to the Cheyenne Mountain Operations center walks into the facility past a 3 foot thick, 25 ton blast door in Colorado Springs, Co., in 2004. Cheyenne Mountain is the command center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD.
  • By Associated Press

| PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado

An evacuation order has been lifted at the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Canadian after five suspicious packages were removed.

Officials say employees became suspicious of the packages because something looked "out of place." They declined to elaborate.

Officials say NORAD's control room team was working at a backup location several miles away when the building was evacuated Thursday morning and no essential operations were disrupted.

The evacuation lasted about 4 1/2 hours.

Officials say the packages were removed but are still undergoing tests.

NORAD is short for North American Aerospace Defense Command. The joint U.S.-Canadian command defends the skies over both nations.

A backup control room in Cheyenne Mountain is in use because of renovations at the headquarters building.

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