A 33-year-old Hamilton man has been charged with public mischief after a threat to the John Sopinka Courthouse closed the Main Street East building and several downtown roads for five hours Monday.

The evacuation and road closures began just before 9 a.m.

Police announced just before 10:30 a.m. that a threat had been made to the courthouse and two suspicious packages had been found "in the immediate vicinity" of the building.

Const. Jerome Stewart said the area was "deemed safe" shortly after 2 p.m.

"Hamilton police take threats of this nature very seriously, so until we can determine that the packages were deemed safe, we're going to investigate thoroughly and obviously time is on our side, it's not something that we're going to rush through," he said.

.<a href="https://twitter.com/HamiltonPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HamiltonPolice</a> have arrested a 33-year-old Hamilton man and charged him with public mischief in connection with 2 suspicious packages found at the courthouse this morning. <a href="https://t.co/VDWQlUWDQY">pic.twitter.com/VDWQlUWDQY</a> —@DanTaekema

Stewart would not say whether the packages were found inside the building our outside. He would also not say what was found inside of them.

Witness saw bag full of clothes

Nesssia, a local musician, was at the courthouse early for her brother's bail hearing and saw the police explosives disposal robot examining one of the packages on the sidewalk outside the building.

"It was like the one they sent on Mars. It was this big old robot … and it started pulling stuff out of the backpack," she said. "It was a scarf at first, then a guy ended up coming through and he tore up the bag and it was just clothes."

.<a href="https://twitter.com/HamiltonPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HamiltonPolice</a> have rolled out their bomb disposal robot — tough to see, look near the corner of the courthouse. <a href="https://t.co/yPRqm6Km9Q">pic.twitter.com/yPRqm6Km9Q</a> —@DanTaekema

The courthouse at 45 Main St. East was evacuated and Main Street closed between James Street and Hughson Avenue around 8:45 a.m.

Sabrin Abbas, who works for a criminal defence lawyer, was in the courthouse at the time of the evacuation and said an alarm went off and courthouse security officers told employees to leave immediately.

"This morning we had to evacuate the courthouse because there were allegedly threats in the courthouse, bomb threats, " said Sabrin Abbas.

Sabrin Abbas works inside the courthouse. She says an alarm went off around 8:45 this morning, then special constables asked everyone inside to leave. <a href="https://t.co/j6lKwxsGW6">pic.twitter.com/j6lKwxsGW6</a> —@DanTaekema

Staff who expected to spend their morning in a courtroom poured out of the building around 8:45 a.m., filling Gore Park with formal wear.



The mood was calm. People sat on park benches or curbs, soaking in the sun while drinking a coffee or having a cigarette.

Whole block affected

At one point, yellow police tape wrapped around an entire city block stretching down James, up King and back along John.

.<a href="https://twitter.com/HamiltonFireDep?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HamiltonFireDep</a> is here, rolling out hoses on Hughson St. S. <a href="https://t.co/j91NEPuUTn">pic.twitter.com/j91NEPuUTn</a> —@DanTaekema

Police said the evacuation happened when it was mostly just staff in the building and before members of the public had entered.

Residents from nearby buildings slowly trickled out to find themselves on the other side of the barrier and were called back through the tape by police.

Police, fire and paramedics EMS congregated on Hughson St., where they focused on the back door.

Closure will have 'ripple affect' on courts

In addition to traffic, the closures had an impact on the HSR, which closed the MacNab St. terminal because of delays caused by street closures.

The terminal opened up again around 2:30 p.m.

Police said people with matters at court should still attend, even though much of the day has past.

Stewart said he expects the evacuation and temporary closure will have a "huge ripple affect" and cause a lot of court delays.

Const. Lorraine Edwards says prisoners who had court dates today were transported to the Barton jail (Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre) and remanded until tomorrow.