(CNN) -- A small explosive device found near the body of a woman struck and killed by a train may have been left over from the Fourth of July, Seattle police said Thursday.
"There is no connection between the victim and the device," according to a police statement. "It was just a strange coincidence."
The woman, believed to be in her 50s, was walking south when the crew of the approaching train saw her suddenly turn around and kneel on the tracks, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
The crew sounded a whistle and applied the emergency brake, but the freight train was unable to avoid striking the woman, Melonas said.
Multiple agencies, including a bomb squad, went to the scene in the Carkeek Park area, along Puget Sound.
They examined what appeared to be a homemade pipe bomb, police said.
"It is unlikely that the device would have done any damage to the tracks or train," according to the police statement.
FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandalo Dietrich said the agency wouldn't comment on the device or any possible connection until the woman is identified.
The rail line, which services about 40 trains, was shut down for a few hours.
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