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Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Commuters at New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal had a brief scare Wednesday morning after a white powder led police to briefly close a main entrance.

Authorities shut the 8th Avenue entrance to the world’s busiest bus depot shortly before 10 a.m. as police examined the “suspicious” substance that was dropped in the terminal’s South Wing. The material, which looked like flour, was a nontoxic cleaning agent, according to Sergeant Lee Jones, a spokesman for the New York Police Department.

Police and National Guard troops put up tape barring hundreds of rush-hour commuters from exiting the terminal at 8th Avenue, directing them to 9th Avenue and shouting for people to get out of the area. The entrance was reopened as of 10:23 a.m.