Update: 7:00 p.m. A suspicious package found in Given building has been destroyed, according to UVM police Captain Tim Bilodeau. “They ended up doing a scan of the package, and disrupting, essentially destroying the package. There were no explosives in the package,” Bilodeau said. “There was nothing in it at all.” The item was left in a hallway in the basement of the Given building, and was deemed suspicious because of “odd color and placement”, according to Bilodeau. “At this point we don’t know exactly how it got there,” he said. “We will do an additional investigation to see what did happen, who placed it there.” The building will be reopened to allow faculty, staff and students inside to collect items and finish work. – – – UVM police are responding to a report of a suspicious package in the animal care area of the Given building on Friday evening. “Shortly after 2:00 today, UVM police received a phone call of a suspicious package in our Given building,” UVM police Captain Tim Bilodeau said during a press conference. “Our officers spotted it there and verified that the package indeed was suspicious, so we evacuated both the Given and HSRF (Health Science Research Facility) buildings, and established a perimeter.” Students and staff were evacuated and barred from entering Rowell, Given and other buildings in the area. “Stop. You can not go this way, there is an emergency in the building right now,” facility coordinator Sue Williams said to a student trying to bike through the area. The evacuated also included a group of about 20 standardized patients used by medical students for practice. “The alarms went off and we all had to run out in our skivvies!” South Burlington resident and standardized patient Steve Marriot said. The University has called the State Police to evaluate the package, and the bomb squad arrived around 4:30 p.m.