Associated Press

Montana authorities say a device they initially thought to be the remnants of a homemade bomb in an elementary school playground didn't explode — and it wasn't even a bomb.

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Tuesday that further investigation found the plastic bottle wrapped in black tape was full of washers, nuts and bolts, along with a non-flammable unidentified liquid. There was no detonator attached to the bottle.

Dutton says a homeless person carried the bottle from a nearby construction site and left it in Helena's Rossiter Elementary School playground.

Initially, authorities said the bottle was an improvised explosive device that detonated sometime before school began. Dutton says authorities passed on information they believed to be true at the time, and that school officials acted appropriately.

The school was evacuated and schools across Helena were locked down after the initial report.

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