Man Says He Has Bomb on Bus

A passenger placed a radio on a seat aboard a Beach Cities Transit bus Wednesday in El Segundo, told the driver it was a bomb, and ordered him to drive him to Santa Monica, police said.

The man, whose threat resulted in the closure of an El Segundo street for an hour, was arrested. His “bomb” was X-rayed and determined to be a harmless radio, El Segundo police Lt. Jaime Bermudez said.

The man boarded the bus at Mariposa Avenue and Main Street at 12:35 p.m. He put the radio down and told the driver somebody had given him a bomb and he wanted to go to the beach in Santa Monica, he said.

“The guy said, ‘Don’t go by the airport because I’m not responsible for what will happen,’ ” Bermudez said.

The driver traveled a couple of blocks and flashed his lights at a police officer traveling in the other direction and pulled over in the 200 block of East Imperial Avenue.

The officer also pulled over, took the man off the bus, and evacuated the driver and one female passenger. The street was closed and people in the immediate area were forced to evacuate.

A Sheriff’s Department bomb squad used a robot to X-ray the device.

Police officers were working Wednesday afternoon to determine whether the man was mentally ill or if he would be booked into jail.