NORMAN, Okla. -- One person was killed in an explosion near
a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday
night in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.
The blast, in a traffic circle about 100 yards from Oklahoma
Memorial Stadium, could be heard by some in the crowd of 84,000,
but university president David Boren said no one inside the stadium
was ever in danger.
"We are apparently dealing with an individual suicide, which is
under full investigation," Boren said in a statement. There was no
information about the person who was killed, and no reports of any
other injuries.
A police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of
the blast. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb-sniffing
dogs.
Dallas police Lt. Sally Lannom was attending the game with her husband and said she felt the blast.
"I could feel the concussion. It was a very helpless feeling. I knew it was a bomb," Lt. Lannom told The Dallas Morning News.
Jaclyn Hull, an OU freshman who left the game shortly before the
explosion, said she saw "a little bit of smoke, about as much as
you would see coming up from a grill."
Student photographer Keaton Fuchs told The Morning News that people in the stadium press box heard the boom and "looked out the back window of the press box."
Officers cordoned off an area west of the stadium after the
explosion and nobody was allowed out of the stadium for about a
half-hour after the blast, which occurred shortly before 8 p.m.,
about halftime of the Sooners' game against Kansas State. The game
continued.
OU coach Bob Stoops told The Dallas Morning News that he learned of the explosion at halftime but didn't think there was anything he could or should do.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.