'Suspicious' Package Causes Evacuation at New York's JFK Airport

Authorities temporarily evacuated a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon.

Officials say that they found a suspicious package after 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) in the baggage room area of Concourse B in Terminal 4, said Chris Valens, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. However, the item turned out to be a tube of toothpaste wrapped in duct tape.

After about 90 minutes, the terminal was re-opened around 5:30 p.m. and travelers were then let back in.

The New York Police Department bomb squad determined that the package was a tube of toothpaste with duct tape around it, Officer James Duffy said.

"We determined that it only contained toothpaste," Duffy said.

Last week, New York's LaGuardia Airport was partially evacuated following a report of suspicious wiring. Ron Marsico of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, says wires protruding from a fluorescent light fixture led someone to call authorities last Tuesday morning. That sparked an evacuation of the upper level of the airport's central terminal building. The main terminal was partially evacuated at about 10:30 a.m. and reopened about an hour later.

The evacuation comes as New York City is on a heightened security alert as a precaution due to the Boston Marathon bombings. Officials also discovered letters laced with ricin, a highly lethal poison, addressed to President Barack Obama and Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi.