Victoria Police shut down the 14-hundred block of Vancouver Street Tuesday afternoon after getting a report of a suspicious package.
It turned out to be an abandoned backpack left outside the Canada Revenue Agency building, underneath a tax return drop-off box.
As officers investigated, pedestrian and vehicle traffic was cut off along the 14-hundred block of Vancouver Street, and along the 900-block Johnson to Pandora, as a precaution.
In the end the package was deemed to be NOT a threat. Police simply tore down thier crime scene tape and left the scene. They have not said if they've determined who the backpack belonged to, or if it was left there by mistake.
Traffic in the downtown core was badly snarled during the incident as traffic was being re-routed.