ASHEVILLE, N.C. – In one North Carolina city, authorities decided it might be too dangerous to give peace a chance.
News outlets report Interstate 240 in Asheville and a bridge over it were closed for about 10 minutes Thursday while police removed two round button-like objects reading "peace" from underneath the bridge.
About 1 foot (0.3 meters) across, the objects were made of a Styrofoam-like material, painted red and gray, and attached with magnets to the steel beams underneath the bridge on the northbound and southbound spans.
The Citizen-Times quotes Lt. Joseph Sorrells as saying authorities assumed the objects didn't pose a threat, but they shut down traffic "to err on the side of caution." He said the objects were harmless.
The road closures caused significant backups on I-240, and a preschool was placed on lockdown.
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