The bomb squad was called to a Philadelphia grocery store on Tuesday after three teenagers tried to light sticks of an explosive inside of it, police said.
Police responded to the Fresh Grocer at 5301 Chew Avenue in the East Germantown neighborhood around 5:10 p.m. after security guards reported that a group of three teens ranging in age from 16 to 19 tried to light sticks of dynamite inside the store, according to investigators.
On Wednesday, Chief Inspector Michael Cram provided an update on the investigation, saying that police believe the incident was far less nefarious than initially reported.
"There was no explosion. No sticks of dynamite," he said. "It was nothing sinister. It was nothing planned."
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Instead, he said the teens seemed to have been attempting to light up fireworks that were part of a display of the items that were on sale at the store in preparation for July 4.
Earlier reports claimed that the guards recovered the explosives -- that police said were M-100s -- and the teens fled the scene.
But, Cram said that the explosives were likely "sparklers" not M-100s, which are fairly powerful explosives.
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Though, he said, if the teens had indeed lit a firework near the display, it could have been dangerous.
"That would be very bad to light off fireworks in front of the firework display inside the store," said Cram. "Fireworks, leave them to the professionals, folks."
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The bomb squad responded to the store and recovered the explosives before clearing the scene, police said. No injuries were reported.
Police have not released a detailed description of the teens outside of saying they were all wearing black clothing at the time of the incident.
