AUBURN – A bank was evacuated, traffic was stopped and an explosion rocked a section of Center Street on Monday afternoon as police disposed of a suspicious package left at Maine Bank & Trust earlier in the day.

The package was filled with promotional materials. But for more than three hours, police kept a section around the bank and around Bagels & Things cordoned off as the package was investigated and bomb disposal experts made their way to Auburn.

Police said an unidentified man walked into the bank Monday afternoon and asked for a woman who no longer worked there. When told the woman was not present, the man left a package inside the building without explanation.

“He just dropped off the package and left,” said police Deputy Chief Jason Moen.

Curious bank employees became suspicious. They set the small box outside and called police. Investigators tracked down the woman to whom the package was addressed and contacted her at another bank branch.

“She wasn’t expecting any sort of package,” Moen said.

Bank employees were quickly evacuated from the building. Police ran yellow tape around that building and down in front of Bagels & Things, which had already closed for the day. They assembled in a parking lot with firefighters and rescue crews, awaiting officers from the Maine State Police Explosives Unit.

When the bomb crew arrived, an officer in protective suiting approached the package with camera equipment. The box was X-rayed and examined by the explosives team. After a consultation with Auburn police, they decided to “disrupt” the package with an explosive charge detonated from a distance.

Police closed north and south lanes along a section of Center Street at about 5 p.m. for five minutes. The closure was a precaution in case explosives inside the package burst and flew into the roadway, police said.

A state police sergeant called: “fire in the hole!” Three seconds later, a blast rumbled across the bank parking lot and paper flew from the box. Trooper Trevor Snow, still wearing the protective suit, approached the debris from the blast and discovered promotional flyers and other paperwork.

Traffic was allowed to pass on Center Street and almost immediately, one vehicle rear-ended another in front of the bank. A police detective who had been at the scene for two hours was sent to begin a report on the crash.

The man who left the package at Maine Bank & Trust remained unidentified Monday night.