At Least 3 Injured When Bomb Detonates During Training Outside Montco Prison

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional information.

SKIPPACK TOWNSHIP, PA — Three longtime sheriff's office deputies were among those injured when a bomb detonated during an explosives response training at a Montgomery County prison on Thursday.

The training device detonated during an exercise outside the SCI Phoenix state prison facility in Skippack Township, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

The FBI's Philadelphia division said bomb technicians from Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI were also injured, but did not release more information. As the Associated Press reported, "the injured were being treated at hospitals for undisclosed injuries that were not considered life-threatening."

One of the Montgomery County deputies, a 14-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was airlifted to Penn Presbyterian Hospital for treatment, the MCSO said. The Sheriff's Office did not list his condition, nor that of the two other deputies injured.

The other two deputies, who are 12- and 13- year veterans of the department, are getting treatment at Paoli Hospital, the sheriff's office said. All three are bomb technicians for the sheriff's office Bomb Squad.

The accident happened at around 9:50 a.m. when members of the Montgomery County Bomb Squad were installing an explosive device for a later class when it prematurely exploded, according to Maria Bivens, press secretary for the Department of Corrections.

"The facility is under normal operations and has not been affected," Bivens stated.

TV news helicopters showed a scorched car in the middle of a field outside the prison.

Bivens said Department of Corrections staff were not involved in the training, and that the course was one run by agents with local offices of the FBI and ATF.

The FBI and Pennsylvania State Police are investigating why the device exploded when it did.