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Hundreds of shoppers and office workers were stranded without their cars after Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre was at the centre of a terror alert last night.
A controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect package which was discovered abandoned inside WH Smiths.
The package – a car tool kit – was found at 4.45pm yesterday and the Army’s Royal Logistics Corps joined police explosives specialists to carry out the detonation using a robot device.
Motorists were not able to return to ther cars until 8.15pm, being forced to wait outside a safety cordon that extended back to Queen Square and Bilston Street. Many were served tea and coffee inside the Oceana nightclub and Novotel hotel.
Mander Centre manager Graham Evans said: “Our security team checked out the item and thought it was suspicious. The police were actually in the centre at the time so they inspected it as well and came to the same conclusion.
“The evacuation went very smoothly; we have trained for these scenarios and the cleaners, security team and police all worked together.
“The co-operation of the public was brilliant, they all just accepted it was an emergency and left quickly.” Mr Evans has worked at the centre for 25 years and remembers the last time a bomb alert disrupted trading in 1992 when an IRA hoax device was found in Dudley Street. He said: “People were not happy then because that scare went on for six hours.
“Thankfully yesterday there were no injuries and everything passed off smoothly again.”
Retail assistant Nicky Hart was one of the first to be ushered out of her shop, Republic.
She said: “We’d noticed the officers standing outside Smiths and then they calmly came over and told us about a security threat and said we had to make our way out of the shop.
“Nobody really knew what to think.”
6 Comments
So what was this package and more importantly who left it there? People are scared and rightly so. I’m here in Canada and all my family are in Wolverhampton, how about some answers. What are the terror nutters up to?
Another point, I’m very proud of the people of Wolverhampton. The fact that no one was found trying to steal from the unlocked shops is wonderful. What a great town!!
Good to hear that it was a false alarm but i hope that the police find who left the tool box and prosecute them. Although i fully accept the measures that had to be taken, i do not appreciate standing around until after 8 because some mindless individual did not think of these consequences.
I know that the police did only what they were trained to do and people should not complain because if it was not found and it was some thing wrong i hate to think what people would have said and done. people should be greatful.There was a lot of people coming out of the centre that day i just thank the lord we all were safe and sound.
y do ppl always accuse the police of being in the wrong, saying they wasted their time. They wouldn’t be sayin that if the package was a threat. They’d be thanking the police for doing something.
I feel like going up to these ppl and saying “ok then, the next time you find a suspicious package, pick it up and take it home cuz you certainly don’t give a damn about your life”
i agree with mark and the police have got a hard job