The Peoria Police Department was alerted Friday afternoon to a suspicious package at BioUrja Renewables, an ethanol production facility. Bomb squad technicians rendered the device safe several hours later, according to Police Chief Brad Dixon.

Mayor Rita Ali confirmed Friday that the package was indeed an explosive.

“A device has been identified. We know it’s a credible threat. We know it’s a bomb,” Ali said. She cautioned that authorities did not yet know whether additional devices were present.

Ali told WMBD-TV that the plant’s contents made the situation especially dangerous.

“It’s a plant that has ethanol and highly combustible types of chemicals, and so that’s what alarms us,” she said.

The evacuation order, covering neighborhoods within one mile of the plant, remained in effect through Friday night and into Saturday. At around 1 p.m. Saturday, authorities announced that no new devices had been located and lifted the evacuation.

Ryan Presley, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Springfield office, said investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify whoever was responsible and “bring them to justice.”

The incident drew a heavy response from local and federal law enforcement. While bomb threats and reports of suspicious packages are not uncommon — and frequently turn out to be hoaxes — authorities say each report must be treated as potentially real until proven otherwise.

Earlier this week, a wave of bomb threats in Europe diverted flights and prompted military escorts, though officials there later described those threats as malicious hoaxes.

For Peoria residents, the discovery of an actual device near a facility handling volatile chemicals underscored the stakes of such threats. The plant, BioUrja Renewables, is a major ethanol producer in the region.

Authorities have not announced any arrests or identified a suspect. The investigation is ongoing.