LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police evacuated an arena hours before a first-round game in the national college basketball championship on Thursday when a bomb-sniffing dog signaled a possible problem at a hot dog stand.
Only a few people were in San Diego State University's Cox Arena when it was evacuated, said San Diego Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque.
The 12,000-seat arena was cleared while police tried to determine if there was an explosive device at the hot dog stand, said college spokesman Jack Beresford said.
"A bomb-sniffing dog noticed something in a hot dog cart," Beresford said. "They got a hit on something that was in the cart itself."
Players for Marquette University and the University of Alabama, whose game was scheduled at 11:40 a.m. PST (2:30 p.m. EST), had not arrived, Luque said.
He said the police bomb squad was using a remote-controlled robot to examine a suspicious package found on top of the cart during the routine sweep.
Four games were scheduled for the arena on Thursday in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, college basketball's marquee event.
) by winthrop to try to get a good shot with so little time and so far to go... couldn't pull it off though
