Bombs Found Near School on Columbine Anniversary

A pipe bomb and two propane tanks have been found near a fire that broke out at a suburban Denver mall on the anniversary of the massacre at nearby Columbine High School. "The fact that has happened 12 years later near the school and with similar devices is very disturbing," said a sheriff's spokeswoman. "It's something that can't be ignored." No one was injured in the fire, and neither the bomb nor the propane exploded. The FBI has classified the attack as a suspected case of domestic terrorism. A person of interest has already been spotted on surveillance footage: a gray-haired man in a baseball cap entering a back stairwell of the mall, according to the FBI

The small fire broke out in the Littleton mall about noon yesterday, and officials ordered some 10,000 shoppers and workers evacuated after they found the propane near the blaze. The pipe bomb was discovered later by the local bomb squad, and officials believe it was intended to detonate the propane. "I can tell you quite honestly that propane can be devastating," the sheriff's spokeswoman told the Denver Post. Suicidal teenage gunmen Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot dead 12 students and teachers in their school rampage in 1999, but they also had pipe bombs and propane tanks rigged to explode, notes Reuters. The mall will remain closed during the investigation, and local schools were placed on modified lock down when the bombs were discovered. Columbine High is always closed on the anniversary of the mass shootings. (More Littleton stories.)