Metrolink train service shut down at Norwalk after suspicious bags spotted

NORWALK - The sheriff’s bomb squad responded to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Spring Metrolink station Thursday moing, and train service was halted after two suspicious bags were found in the parking lot.

A sheriff’s public service officer reportedly saw the bags around 7:25 a.m.

Ramon Montenegro, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Transit Policing Division, said the bags were at different locations but near each other. He said the station at 12650 Imperial Highway was evacuated and the Sheriff’s Arson & Explosive Detail notified.

He said the trains were stopped.

Deputies shut down car and pedestrian traffic on Imperial Highway between Shoemaker and Bloomfield avenues.

Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said approximately 2,000 passengers in five Metrolink trains were affected.

Because of the investigation, he said, four trains on the Orange County and 91 lines that were headed to Los Angeles couldn’t go through the Norwalk station. These trains were being re-routed to the Inland Empire to get onto tracks that would lead to Los Angeles.

Two trains supposed to leave Los Angeles remain at Union Station — Metrolink train 600 and Amtrak train 564. Johnson didn’t know how many passengers were in the Amtrak train.

The Metrolink San Beardino and Riverside lines were not affected.