Investigators are trying to determine whether an explosion early Tuesday at a FedEx facility outside San Antonio is connected to four explosions that have rattled the Austin, Texas, area this month.

The most recent blast happened inside a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas, FBI San Antonio spokeswoman Michelle Lee said. Schertz is a San Antonio suburb that is roughly an hour's drive southwest of Austin.

One FedEx team member suffered minor injuries when a "single package exploded" at the ground sorting facility, company spokesman Jim McCluskey said Tuesday in a statement. An ATF spokeswoman earlier had said no injuries were reported.

"We are not providing any additional specific information about this package at this time," McCluskey said.

Based on preliminary information gathered at the scene, Lee said there could be a connection with the four Austin explosions, which killed two people and injured four others over 17 days starting March 2.

"We suspect it is related to our investigation," Lee said.

If the FedEx incident is confirmed to be linked to the Austin blasts, it would represent a new method for the suspect or suspects. None of the four previous explosives was mailed.

The ATF could not confirm that the latest explosion is associated with the Austin blasts, ATF spokeswoman Nicole Strong said. The ATF's Houston field division is at the FedEx facility in Schertz, the agency said on Twitter.

FedEx is "working closely with law enforcement in their investigation," McCluskey said.

In Austin, authorities have been combing for clues to the four explosions there -- the first three of which involved cardboard packages that were left in front yards or porches and weren't delivered the US Postal Service or services such as UPS or FedEx, police say.

In the fourth blast, a device was triggered by a tripwire Sunday, injuring two men, police said.
• President Donald Trump has been briefed on the Austin bombings, a White House spokesman said Monday, adding that the White House pledges its support to local law enforcement.
• Three members of the Congressional Black Caucus called Monday for federal officials to classify the bombings as terrorist attacks and determine whether they are "ideologically or racially motivated."
• The NAACP called the incidents "acts of domestic terrorism" and called for vigilance and caution for communities in Austin.

More than 350 special agents assigned by the FBI, as well as ATF agents and forensic investigators in Quantico, Virginia, are on the case.

On the state level, about 100 Texas Department of Public Safety officers, sergeants, and special agents, as well as the Texas Ranger bomb squad, bomb-sniffing dogs, intelligence agents and helicopters are also involved, reported CNN affiliate KXAN.

Police departments in Houston and San Antonio are sending bomb technicians and canine teams to Austin, their police chiefs said Monday.

How are they examining the evidence?

ATF has taken evidence from the four blast sites, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

"The prior three scenes are already in the lab at Quantico, and the evidence from the scene from last night is on its way to Quantico as well," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday night.

"They're looking at the devices, they're comparing them, looking for similarities," he said.

"The similarities they've seen to this point, lead them to believe -- as we do -- that these are all being constructed by the same person or persons who are responsible for this."

How are they handling the tips?

Austin police has received lots of tips, Manley said Monday night.

"As each tip comes in, it gets assigned to either a team of FBI agents, ATF agents or Austin Police detectives to do follow-up work on," he said.

Manley also urged residents to call police with any tips they may have.

"No matter how inconsequential you think it may be, that may be the piece of evidence we need to link it together and solve this, before we have someone else in our community that gets seriously injured or killed," he said.

What resources are they getting?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $265,500 in emergency funding for the Austin Police Department and the Texas Ranger Response Team to purchase seven portable X-ray systems.

The systems can be used at the scene so they can quickly assess the safety of packages.

"I want to ensure everyone in the Austin region and the entire state that Texas is committed to providing every resource necessary to make sure these crimes are solved as quickly as possible," Abbott said in a statement.

The reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for the blasts is at a total of $115,000.

What are police asking residents to do?

Police are appealing to residents to pay attention to their surroundings to see if something looks out of place.

Manley told residents not to touch or go near anything that looks suspicious.

"We now need the community to have an extra level of vigilance and pay attention to any suspicious device -- whether it be a package or a bag, a backpack -- anything that looks out of place," Manley said Monday. "Do not approach items like that."

Authorities are also asking anyone in the neighborhood with security camera footage to call police.

Many minority residents in Austin have been on edge since the bombings started, as the first three bombings killed or wounded minorities who received packages at their doors. Police have not discovered a motive, but have not ruled out the possibility those bombings could be hate crimes.

The fourth explosion injured two white males, who were injured by a device left on the side of a road and triggered by a tripwire.

"The use of a tripwire is far less discriminating than leaving parcel bombs at residences and suggests that the latest victims were not specifically targeted," the global think tank Stratfor Threat Lens said.

The use of a tripwire suggests that the bomb maker is perhaps more sophisticated and capable of making a more complex bomb, law enforcement and analysts have said. </s> A packaged destined for an address in Austin exploded inside a FedEx distribution facility outside of San Antonio, law enforcement sources tell CBS Austin.



The package detonated around 12:25 am at the facility in Schertz, TX. Sources said the package was moving from an elevated conveyor belt to a lower section when it exploded.

A woman working near the package was treated for a headache but was not seriously hurt.



The package contained shrapnel consisting of nails and pieces of metal, sources said, but none of the 75 employees inside the facility were injured.



There are several law enforcement agencies at the scene, including agents from the ATF, FBI and Homeland Security.

This is a developing story, stay with us on air and online for the latest. </s> AUSTIN, Texas >> Emergency teams were responding Tuesday night to another reported explosion in Texas’ capital, this one at a Goodwill store in the southern part of the city.

In a tweet, the Austin Police Department urged residents to avoid the area. Austin-Travis County EMS said there had been reports of at least one person injured, though it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were.

It came as investigators who have pursued a suspected serial bomber terrorizing Austin for weeks uncovered what seemed like valuable new leads in the case.

Even before the report of the Goodwill blast, it had already been a busy day for authorities. Before dawn Tuesday, a bomb inside a package exploded around 1 a.m. as it passed along a conveyer belt at a FedEx shipping center near San Antonio, causing minor injuries to a worker. The Austin Police Department, the FBI and other federal agencies confirmed that the package center blast was related to four previous ones that killed two people and seriously injured four others.

That explosion occurred at a FedEx facility in Schertz, just northeast of San Antonio and about 60 miles southwest of Austin.

Later in the morning, police sent a bomb squad to a FedEx facility outside the Austin airport to check on a suspicious package that was reported around 6:20 a.m. Federal agencies and police later said that package had indeed contained an explosive that was successfully intercepted by authorities. They added that the intercepted package, too, was believed to be related to the other bombings.

Meanwhile, authorities also closed off an Austin-area FedEx store where they believe the bomb that exploded was shipped to the distribution center. They roped off a large area around the shopping center in the enclave of Sunset Valley and were collecting evidence, including surveillance camera footage.

Then, authorities closed off an Austin-area FedEx store where they believe the bomb that exploded was shipped to the distribution center — roping off a large area around the shopping center in the enclave of Sunset Valley and were collecting evidence, including surveillance camera footage.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that investigators have obtained surveillance videos that “could possibly” show a suspect, but are still poring through video.

“I hope his biggest mistake was going through FedEx,” McCaul, who has spoken to federal investigators and Austin police Chief Brian Manley, said of the bomber in a phone interview.

He added that the person responsible for the bombings had previously been “very sophisticated in going around surveillance cameras.”

“They’ve got a couple of videos that could possibly be the person but they’re not sure at this point,” McCaul said.

Before it exploded, the package had been sent from Austin and was addressed to a home in Austin, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

In a statement, FedEx officials said the same person responsible for sending the package also shipped a second parcel that has been secured and turned over to law enforcement. A company spokeswoman refused to say if that second package might have been linked to the one reported at the distribution center near the airport.

The Schertz blast came less than two days after a bombing wounded two men Sunday night in a quiet Austin neighborhood about 3 miles from the FedEx store. It was triggered by a nearly invisible tripwire, suggesting a “higher level of sophistication” than agents saw in three package bombs previously left on doorsteps, according to Fred Milanowski, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A criminologist at the University of Alabama said if a single perpetrator is behind the blasts, changing the means of delivery increases the bomber’s chance of getting caught.

“I think it would suggest that the bomber is trying to stay unpredictable,” Adam Lankford said. “But it also increases the likelihood that he would make a mistake.”

Authorities have not identified the two men who were hurt Sunday, saying only that they are in their 20s and white. But William Grote told The Associated Press that his grandson was one of them and that he had what appeared to be nails embedded in his knees.

On the night of the fourth bombing, one of the victims was riding a bike in the street and the other was on a sidewalk when they hit the tripwire.

“It was so dark they couldn’t tell, and they tripped,” Grote said.

In Washington, President Donald Trump said the assailant behind the bombing is “very sick.”

During an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the president said, “This is obviously a very sick individual or individuals,” and authorities are “working to get to the bottom of it.”

Despite bombing tactics that have now shifted, investigators have repeated prior warnings about not touching unexpected packages and urged people to be wary of any stray object left in public. Austin police say they have now responded to more than 1,200 reports of suspicious packages in a little more than a week — without finding anything dangerous.

Officers originally pointed to possible hate crimes, but the victims have now been black, Hispanic and white and from different parts of the city.

“We are clearly dealing with what we believe to be a serial bomber,” Manley says.

Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin and Matt Sedensky in New York contributed to this report. </s> Package addressed to Austin explodes at FedEx facility in Schertz

A packaged destined for an address in Austin exploded inside a FedEx distribution facility outside of San Antonio, law enforcement sources tell CBS Austin.

The package detonated around 12:25 am at the facility in Schertz, TX. Sources said the package was moving from an elevated conveyor belt to a lower section when it exploded.

A woman working near the package was treated for a headache but was not seriously hurt.

The package contained shrapnel consisting of nails and pieces of metal, sources said, but none of the 75 employees inside the facility were injured.

There are several law enforcement agencies at the scene, including agents from the ATF, FBI and Homeland Security.

This is a developing story. Please check back periodically for details. </s> A package exploded early this morning at a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas, about 60 miles south of Austin, according to the FBI and local law enforcement. According to media reports, it was bound for Austin.

"Early this morning, Schertz Police responded to the Fedex facility in the 9900 block of Doerr Lane for a report of an explosion," Schertz police wrote on Facebook. "Further investigation revealed the explosion came from a package in the sorting area of the facility. One person was treated and released at the scene."

In a statement, FedEx confirmed one employee sustained injuries in the blast.

"We can confirm that a single package exploded while in a FedEx Ground sortation facility early this morning. One team member is being treated for minor injuries," FedEx said. "We are working closely with law enforcement in their investigation. We are not providing any additional specific information about this package at this time."

The explosion comes amid a string of four bombings that have struck Austin over the past three weeks. Two people have been killed, and four others wounded.

“We believe that the [latest] explosion is likely connected to our overall investigation into the bombings,” FBI Special Agent Michelle Lee told KUT.

The Austin Fire Department says it has received calls about a suspicious package at a FedEx facility on 4117 McKinney Falls Parkway, near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The fire department's hazardous materials team is at the scene with the Austin Police Department and Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. </s> A package exploded early Tuesday at a FedEx distribution facility in Texas, news reports said, two days after the latest in a series of blasts in Austin attributed to a serial bomber.

This time the explosion rocked a facility in the town of Schertz, in the San Antonio area. Reports said one employee was injured.

The Washington Post, quoting the FBI, reported that the package had been bound for Austin, the state capital.

Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents are searching for a mysterious "serial bomber" after Sunday's blast in Austin the fourth this month left two young men seriously injured and the city on edge.

Police said the explosion was connected to three previous bombings in Austin and the bomber used a tripwire in the latest attack, showing a higher level of skill.

"We're clearly dealing with what we expect to be a serial bomber at this point," Austin police chief Brian Manley told reporters. </s> (CNN) -- A suspect in a wave of bombing attacks in Austin killed himself inside his car with an explosive device early Wednesday as authorities closed in, police said.

Since the bombings started on March 2, investigators frantically searched for clues, calling the attacks the work of a"serial bomber" who increasingly changed tactics. The bombings killed two people and left the Texas capital terrorized with fear for 19 days.
• In the past 36 hours, law enforcement received information directing them to a person of interest, who ultimately became a suspect.
• Surveillance teams tracked the suspect's vehicle to a hotel in Round Rock, north of Austin. As police waited on tactical units, the vehicle left the hotel.
• SWAT approached the vehicle and the suspect detonated a bomb, killing himself and injuring a SWAT member.
• A SWAT officer fired his weapon at the suspect after an officer was knocked down by the blast. It's unclear whether the officer shot the suspect.
• The suspect is a 24-year-old white man, and authorities don't know whether he acted alone or what his motive was.
• He is responsible for all the incidents in Austin, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.
• "This is the culmination of three very long weeks in our community," Manley said.
• He urged residents to be vigilant, saying they don't know where the bomber has been for the past 24 hours and if he sent additional packages.
• "Austin bombing suspect is dead. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned!," President Donald Trump tweeted.

In the latest incident,a package exploded at a FedEx sorting center near San Antonio on Tuesday, and a second unexploded bomb was discovered on the same day at another FedEx facility near Austin.

Those two packages are connected to four previous bombings that left two people dead. FedEx said the person who sent the package that exploded Tuesday also shipped a second one that was turned over to law enforcement officials.

FedEx said it provided authorities with "extensive evidence" from its security system on the packages and the person who shipped them.

In the incident near San Antonio, the device detonated on an automatic conveyor, Police Chief Michael Hansen said. A female employee was treated on site and released. The FedEx facility was not the intended target.

A possible explosion reported Tuesday night at a Goodwill store in Austin turned out to be unrelated. In that incident, an employee was injured by two "artillery simulators" in a donation box, said Ely Reyes, Austin's assistant police chief. The employee was treated and released from a hospital, Reyes said.

With every change in the bomber's tactic, Austin residents are getting increasingly nervous.

Grocery stores, apartment buildings and restaurants have been evacuated at a moment's notice as investigations intensify.

"This is terrorizing the city of Austin," Rep. Michael McCaul told President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

As investigators search for answers, they are checking the cameras at the facilities from Tuesday's incidents, the source said.

Investigators believe the same person is behind all the devices, the source said, adding that the devices have a lot of consistencies. They are similar in the way they are made and use the same items, including a "mouse trap" or a "close pin" switch, according to the source.

"We made one to show everyone what it looks like and we did it in an hour," the source said. The the bombmaker may have taken longer to do it to avoid blowing themselves up, according to the source.

The level of bombmaking skill doesn't necessarily point to military experience, the source added.

Investigators said the package that was found intact Tuesday may yield some clues.

"Now we have the blueprint and possible DNA on the inside of the bomb. So teams are working to render it safe and then look for DNA," the source said. The outside of the package would have been touched by employees at the store where it was dropped off and by the bombmaker, the source said.

The bombmaker may have been wearing gloves.

Of the four previous explosions in Austin, the first three involved cardboard packages left in front yards or on porches. They weren't delivered by the US Postal Service or services such as UPS or FedEx, police say.

Those three explosions -- one on March 2 and two more on March 12 -- killed or wounded three African-Americans and one Hispanic person. They happened in east Austin areas with predominantly minority residents. Some residents expressed concern the attacks might have been racially-motivated.

The first explosion killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House on March 2. The second blast on March 12 killed 17-year-old Draylen Mason. The third blast happened several hours later and critically injured a 75-year-old woman.

Those three blasts all happened after someone left explosives-laden packages on the victims' doorsteps.

In the fourth blast, a device was triggered by a tripwire, injuring two white men in a predominantly white area.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that those bombings could be hate crimes. They urged residents to pay attention to their surroundings, and not approach or touch anything that looks suspicious. </s> Over the course of 17 days in March, four separate packages have mysteriously exploded in Austin, killing two people in the Texas capital and injuring four others. Then, just after midnight on Tuesday morning, March 20, a fifth package exploded. Despite the fact that the package exploded at a FedEx facility in the San Antonio area, police are reportedly investigating whether it is related to the series of events that is now becoming known as the Austin bombings.

The Washington Post reported that a law enforcement official said a possible link between the fifth package and the four that have already exploded in Austin "is definitely a concern of ours." It's not hard to see why. The package that exploded at the FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas was bound for an address in Austin, CBS Austin reports.

That means that all five of the detonated packages were either sent to, or headed for, Texas' capital city.

A statement from a FedEx spokesman on Tuesday said that no deaths were causes by the latest explosion. It reads,

Most of the bombings so far have been in packages in transit or at homes, but the fourth bombing marked a difference. On Sunday, March 18, two days before the explosion at the FedEx facility near San Antonio, an explosion in Austin injured two men walking down a residential street, The Washington Post reports.

The fourth explosion differed from the previous three in two significants ways. First, it appeared to be triggered by a tripwire.

"The belief that we are now dealing with someone who is using tripwires shows a higher level of sophistication, a higher level of skill," Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said on Monday, per NPR. "Do not even approach it, but instead call 911."

The second difference between the fourth bombing and those that came before it? The first three explosions occurred in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods, according to The Post, causing concern that the attacks were targeting minorities.

After the fourth explosion, Manley said police weren't ruling anything out.

"As we said from the beginning, we were not willing to classify this as terrorism, as hate, because we just don't know enough," the police chief said Monday, per NPR. "And what we have seen now is a significant change from what appeared to be three very targeted attacks, to what was last night an attack that would have hit a random victim that happened to walk by. So we've definitely seen a change in the method that this suspect ... is using."

The first of the Austin bombings happened on Friday morning, March 2. That particular attack resulted in a 39-year-old named Anthony Stephan House being killed after he handled a package that was left on his front porch, according to The New York Times.

Ten days later, two more bombings occurred in Austin. The first of the two killed a 17-year-old named Draylen Mason, a high school senior who had been accepted to the University of Texas, where he reportedly planned to study music.

"He was a cool guy, and he was just so fun to be around,” a friend, Kylie Phillips, told The Austin American-Statesman. “He was always busy, because he always had gigs and he was always doing things for the orchestra here in Austin … I used to sing in a band with him, so it was devastating when I found out he died.”

Mason's mother was also left critically injured, per The New York Times. Hours later, a 75-year-old Hispanic woman was injured after she picked up a package outside of her home, according to The Times.

And now, after another explosive package was found on Tuesday, police are working to make sure that a sixth explosion isn't added to the list of Austin bombings. </s> Share this article with Google Plus

A sixth suspected package bomb was discovered at an Austin FedEx depot Tuesday morning, hours after a package exploded at a San Antonio facility.

Cops in the Texas city probed a parcel in a depot close to Austin’s airport, and sealed off nearby roads.

Specialist fire services were sent to the scene, as 500 FBI agents were put on the case in a bid to halt the bombing campaign that has already killed two people.

Workers at the depot said they were evacuated, hours after a female FedEx worker was injured when a package filled with nails and metal shrapnel exploded in San Antonio shortly after midnight.

She escaped with ringing in her ears.

The latest incident comes a day after a tripwire device sprayed two cyclists with nails

That blast– the fourth this month – left two young men seriously injured and the city on edge.

Police said the explosion was connected to three previous bombings in Austin and the bomber used a tripwire in the latest attack, showing a higher level of skill.

It came a week after an exploding package killed Austin teenager Draylen Mason, 17.

The same afternoon, another package exploded and killed an elderly Hispanic woman in Austin, ten days after Anthony Stephan House was killed by an exploding package in the same Texan city.

Police are not believed to have identified any suspects for the attacks, and prompted widespread panic after warning Austin locals not to open any unexpected packages.

It was initially feared the bomber could have a racist motive, as the first three bombs killed two African American men, and injured an elderly Hispanic lady.

However, the two men injured in Sunday’s tripwire attack were white, which cast doubts over whether the attacker is a far-right extremist.
A bomb detonates overnight at a FedEx facility in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The FBI believes the bombing is linked to the other bombings in the area. The ATF reports that there were no serious injuries. Both the bomb's point of origin and intended destination were in Austin.