No danger at US church after phoned threat

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (AP) - Worshippers hurriedly left a church on Sunday when someone phoned in a threat as parishioners remembered 20 children and six adults who were massacred at a nearby elementary school, but police later said nothing dangerous was found.

The threat interrupted a crowded Mass and touched off a large police response days after the worst massacre of school-age children in US history.

Halfway through the noon service at the St. Rose of Lima Church, the priest stopped and said, "Please, everybody leave. There is a threat," said worshipper Anna Wood of Oxford, Connecticut.

At least a dozen police in camouflage gear and carrying guns soon arrived. An Associated Press photographer saw police leave carrying something in a red tarp. Guns drawn, they searched the church and adjacent buildings.