NH Market Basket Evacuated Over Suspicious Package Found to Be Pressure Cooker

Police in Seabrook, New Hampshire, asked the public to avoid the area at a shopping plaza on Tuesday while they investigated a suspicious package.

The nature of the suspicious package at Southgate Plaza wasn't immediately clear, but police later said it was a pressure cooker.

They were working to determine whether it was left with intent to hurt others, but the condition in which it was found was not deemed to be a threat.

Officers had taped off the plaza, which houses a Market Basket, UPS Store, TJ Maxx and other stores.

Aerial footage showed an officer in a bomb-proof suit examining a shopping cart.

Seabrook's police chief said the device was suspicious and investigators want to know who left it there and why.

Update: police say it was a pressure cooker; investigators are trying to determine what the intentions were of whoever left it there, but it was deemed not to be a threat in the condition it was found. @NBC10Boston @NECN https://t.co/wHhVzL0e2m pic.twitter.com/k0aRhmJAGi

— Michael Rosenfield NBC10 Boston (@MikeRNBCBoston) January 4, 2022

The incident began when someone called police to report the pressure cooker in a shopping cart in the Market Basket's parking lot, police said. Officers evacuated the supermarket and a nearby Paper Store and requested help from the state bomb squad, which found the device wasn't a threat.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Seabrook police at 603-474-5200.