POSTED: 12:17 pm EDT August 4, 2004
UPDATED: 1:56 pm EDT August 4, 2004
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Riverplace Tower on Riverplace Boulevard on the Southbank reopened about 90 minutes after it was was evacuated when police received information of a hostage situation inside a law office on the 13th floor.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson said they are responding to a telephone call that that was "a device" in the tower. He also told Channel 4 crews on scene that there was a report of a man with a gun holding a hostage.
Channel 4's Live Coverage
The 13th floor houses some offices of the Rogers-Towers Attorneys At Law.
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Sheriff John Rutherford is expected to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. to explain exactly what happened.
Just before noon, everyone inside the building was told over the building's public address system to leave the building, but not use the elevators.
A manager with Southtrust bank told Channel 4's Bruce Hamilton that everyone was asked to leave "as quickly as possible."
Several hundred people, including children from a day-care center, have left the building 28-story building. Jefferson said the children were taken into the Radisson Hotel about two blocks away.
The SWAT team and bomb squad has entered the building and is sweeping every floor. Police have diverted traffic from Riverplace Boulevard from in front of the building and police asked the media to back up from the area.
Construction workers at an adjoining work site were also asked to leave.
Channel 4's Scott Johnson said everyone coming out of the building was confused about why they were leaving but were calm. He said that as the children were leaving, they passed heavily armed SWAT team members headed toward the building.