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Flammable Devices Found At Baltimore County Campus

CATONSVILLE, Md. (WJZ)—Just days before graduation, police at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County confirm they found incendiary devices on campus.

Derek Valcourt has details on the devices and reaction from campus.

UMBC school officials alerted students by email. Two Molotov cocktails were discovered inside an exterior stairwell of the Gunpowder Terrace student apartments Saturday morning.

"I saw the cops taking it away," said David King, UMBC senior. "They checked it out, had the bomb squad checking it out. It wasn't like a really huge deal."

Police confirm they found two containers filled with flammable liquids and what they described as wicks inserted into each one.

"That's not a college prank gone wrong," said Matthew Eastman, a fourth-year student. "That's an incendiary device, as the email phrased it. So it was a little disconcerting."

Campus police declined WJZ's request for an on-camera interview but say they are investigating what they found and say so far they have no suspects.

Friday was the last day of the semester at UMBC. Many students have already moved out for the year.

The few that remain credit police with quick action and say they're not too concerned.

"It makes me a little bit nervous, but I think it's probably just some students goofing off right before they leave," said Keilan Freeman.

"I think they handled it well," said Ryan Epps. "They didn't make it seem like we were all in harm's way, and they didn't play it down either. They just let us know, informed us as best they knew how to."

"UMBC is a very safe campus," said Grant Foehrkold. "This is, I think, the first incident that I know of that happened here."

"Stuff happens, and thankfully we caught it," said Eastman. "There's not much else you can do about it."

Campus police say they do not know how long the Molotov cocktails had been sitting there at the student dormitory. They would not say what exactly the flammable liquid was.

The fire marshal's office collected the devices and disposed of them.

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