BERLIN - The Latest on the suspicious device found near a Christmas market in Germany: (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

German police say a suspect package that prompted the evacuation of a Christmas market in Potsdam had no ignition device.

The package is still being analyzed, but Brandenburg state police said on Twitter on Friday night that it contained "a cylindrical object with cables, batteries and nails, but at this point no ignition device has been found."

Authorities previously said that the package also contained a powder, but that it hadn't been determined whether it was an explosive substance or something else.

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6:10 p.m.

A German security official says the suspicious package destroyed by authorities at a Christmas market in Potsdam contained nails and a powder, but that it's not yet known whether they part of a real explosive device.

Brandenburg state Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter told reporters at the scene that it would take some time to analyze the powder. He says the package might have been a dummy.

Schroeter praised Potsdam police for quickly evacuating the city's entire Christmas market while the device was secured and then destroyed in a controlled explosion.

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5:50 p.m.

German police say they've destroyed a suspicious object found at a Christmas market in the city of Potsdam that contained either explosives or flammable material.

Police spokesman Torsten Herbst said on n-tv that it was not yet clear exactly what the device was made of.

The object was found Friday afternoon. Police quickly evacuated the area and brought in experts to carry out a controlled explosion.

A truck attack on Berlin's Christmas market last year killed 12 people.

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5:35 p.m.

German police say they've evacuated a neighbourhood in the city of Potsdam after finding a suspicious object near a Christmas market.

Potsdam police said they cleared the area around where the object was found on Friday afternoon and are investigating.

They said they have not found any explosives but "the investigation continues."

Authorities are taking extra precautions following the attack on Berlin's Christmas market last year by an Islamic extremist who drove a truck into the crowd, killing 12 people.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017