CATASAUQUA, Pa. – A community is seeking answers after an explosive device went off near a Lehigh County church Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
State Police say this all happened while the church was operating as a polling place.<\/p>\n
69 News Reporter Sydney Kay was in Catasauqua with the latest from investigators.<\/p>\n
State Police say around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, the explosive device was thrown from a moving vehicle outside of Salem United Church of Christ on Third Street. The device then detonated about half a block away.<\/p>\n
No one was injured, but police continue to investigate why this happened and who was behind it, while nearby residents say they’re concerned.<\/p>\n
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WFMZ-TV | Jenny McCain<\/p>\n
Residents at a senior citizen complex nearby say it was unsettling to hear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was a pretty big blast, and it was scary,” said\u00a0Catasauqua resident\u00a0Jerry Houser.<\/p>\n
“I mean all of us were outside trying to figure out what the noise was and also why it was happening.”<\/p>\n
“I’m here four years and it’s like I’ve never witnessed anything like this before,” said another resident.<\/p>\n
State Police stated they believed it to be an isolated incident. The polling place remained open to voters on the side entrance, while road closures were in place for investigators.<\/p>\n
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Rich Rolen | for WFMZ-TV<\/p>\n
They were seen focused on two homes at the end of Pine and Third Street.<\/p>\n
One voter we spoke to says she was at the polling location a couple hours before the incident.<\/p>\n
“I want to say I’m surprised and I’m shocked because we hear across the nation things are, people are up in arms and divisive,” said\u00a0Catasauqua resident\u00a0Karen Delabar.<\/p>\n
Troopers say nothing was found by investigators to link the blast to the polling place, but the local Judge of Elections says the active scene was limiting access to nearby and handicap parking.<\/p>\n
He said they saw a steady turnout and had concerns about the investigation deterring voters.<\/p>\n
“Never expect anything like this to happen and for it to happen, on election day outside of a polling location, is very unusual. It is scary,” said Louis Draxler, Judge of Election, Catasauqua 3rd District.<\/p>\n
No arrests have been made in the investigation.<\/p>\n
They are asking for anyone with any information on the explosion to contact State Police-Bethlehem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CATASAUQUA, Pa. – A community is seeking answers after an explosive device went off near a Lehigh County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,805],"class_list":["post-197709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehighvalley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}