Pipe bomb closes beach

A section of Huntington State Beach was evacuated and closed as police and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies removed a pipe bomb near Tower 14 on Thursday, police said.

Just before 10 a.m. police responded to a call that a dangerous device, possibly a large firework, was found near the tower around 16th Street by a man with a metal detector.

A lifeguard told police the man with the detector found what appeared to be an unexploded pipe bomb between Towers 14 and 16. The lifeguard told the man to leave the device on the ground and then lifeguards and police officers evacuated the area, police said.

Authorities then called in the Sheriff’s Department’s bomb squad. Bomb squad deputies confirmed that the device was a pipe bomb.

“We remotely breached the device, rendering it safe and collecting it for evidence,” Sgt. Randy Sterett said.

The device was not detonated but deputies did not explain how they rendered it safe.

The beach was reopened around 2 p.m.