THERE HAS BEEN AN EXPLOSION AT YALE LAW SCHOOL:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An explosion was reported in a mail room at the Yale University law school, a city spokesman said.

James Foye, a spokesman for Mayor John DeStefano, said he had no immediate information about any injuries.

The FBI in New Haven said members of the agency’s terrorism task force were sent to the scene.

Smoke could be seen rising from downtown.

The incident came as the nation was on elevated alert for possible terrorist attacks and several hours after President Bush — a Yale alumnus — visited the state to speak at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London.

The Bush connection seems rather unlikely to me. There’s nothing about this at the Kitchen Cabinet or Balkinization sites, and I can’t seem to get Yalepundits to load. But OxBlog has this report:

Anna Skotko writes in to say that the word on the street (literally) is that thankfully so far it seems possible no students were hurt. Someone saw a wall to the alumni reading room collapse, and a few classroom doors were reportedly blown out – but buildings can be rebuilt….

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The Command Post reports that one floor has collapsed. (But be skeptical of early reports, as always.)

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader suggests that the smoke is probably steam from the cogen plant. I was on the building committee — the campus is riddled with steam tunnels that could rupture. I’m somewhat skeptical about the floor collapse story, as the floors are mostly thick and granite. Perhaps part of one might have collapsed, but even that seems doubtful.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a later story:

Barbara Safriet, an associate dean at the law school, said fire officials told her that there were no injuries reported, but crews were still checking the building.

New Haven police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester also said early reports indicated the explosion was in a mail room, and said it might have affected more than one room.

Witnesses reported a loud boom and flying debris shortly before 5 p.m. Police shut down the city block around the law school.

Alexandra Alperovich, a law school student, said she was sitting in the student lounge when she heard the explosion. She saw a wall to the alumni lounge collapse.

“It was very smoky. Everything started falling and I just ran out right away,” she said.

If the Alumni Lounge is the room I think it is (they’ve renamed some of them) it shares a wall with the mailroom.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sounds like it was actually in a classroom — room 127? — from what they just said on TV. The terror connection seems very doubtful. The obvious explanation, though — a student trying to stop an exam — seems very unlikely at Yale, where people are pretty mellow due to the lack of class rankings and, for all practical purposes, grades.

Lily Malcolm of Kitchen Cabinet (link above) reports: “We are all fine.” I’m relieved. Jack Balkin — link also above — also has a somewhat more detailed report that suggests it might have been an exploding pipe. He says the explosion was in room 120. Oxblog (permalinks not working) has multiple updates.

STILL MORE: This MSNBC report says it was room 120.

MORE YET: A student emailer says there are lockers more or less above room 120 (there weren’t when I was there) and that the explosion might have been in one of them. Who knows? We will, soon enough. I’d be quite surprised to discover that this is terrorism (at least of the Islamo-fascist variety), though.

LawMeme has more.