UPDATE: Evacuation order lifted after ‘inadvertent’ TB release in Baltimore

(AP) – Officials in Baltimore have lifted an evacuation order after clearing people out of two medical research buildings due to tuberculosis contamination.

Kim Hoppe, a spokeswoman with Johns Hopkins Medicine, said Thursday that a small sample of frozen tuberculosis was "inadvertently released" in an internal bridge between two cancer research buildings that don't connect to the hospital.

The release prompted the evacuation of both Hopkins research buildings in the early afternoon. Employees who were in the area where the release occurred were isolated and evaluated.

But Hoppe said authorities later confirmed "that there was no risk to anyone on campus."

Baltimore Fire Chief Roman Clark said people were allowed back into the research buildings by late afternoon.

Tuberculosis is the world's leading infectious killer. Airborne germs spread the disease.