A man punched a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and claimed he had an explosive in his suitcase, officials said Friday, NBC News reported.
The U.S. Embassy said a man with a suitcase approached the entrance to the building near Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate at around 1:25 a.m. ET and presented a passport he wanted to renew.
"When the embassy's local guard offered a card with the address for passport services, the man struck the guard with his fist," the embassy said in a statement.
Police handcuffed the man after the guard pinned him down but the suspect "yelled that he had a bomb in the suitcase" as he was led away by officers, the embassy added.
A German bomb expert was called in and a robot was used to rule out explosives, the statement added.
