Man with bomb-making chemicals detained in Kalispell

MISSOULA — Residents in a three-block area of northern Missoula were evacuated Monday after a landlord found bomb-making chemicals in a tenant’s apartment.

Four four-plexes and a mobile home park were evacuated Monday morning so police could clear a 100-yard area around the apartment.

The tenant of the apartment was detained in Kalispell and transferred to Missoula.

Missoula police said the landlord entered the apartment Monday morning and found chemicals he believed could have been used to make methamphetamine.

Responding officers instead found chemicals needed to make bombs.

At midday, experts were in the apartment trying to analyze the compounds and determine the best way to remove the chemicals.

A 26-year-old man was detained for questioning in Kalispell.

“We did speak with a male up here this morning,” Scott Warnell, investigations captain with the Kalispell Police Department, said Monday afternoon.

Warnell said Missoula police knew the man’s location in Kalispell and requested assistance in locating him. The man is a Missoula resident and the tenant of the apartment in question, Warnell said.

Asked if the man had been arrested, Warnell said: “Not at this time.”