Make-up case causes Hooty's bomb scare

An abandoned metallic case caused chaos at a Black Country discount store – only for a bomb disposal team to discover it was a make-up set.

More than 200 customers and staff were evacuated from Hooty's in Willenhall after the unclaimed case sparked suspicion. It was discovered near to a car around 10.30am yesterday on the Long Acres Industrial Estate and security staff called police. Customers and staff were asked to leave the premises as the car park was cordoned off until the bomb squad arrived.

They carried out a controlled explosion but it then emerged that the box contained a make-up set. The store was able to reopen at 1pm.

Hooty's finance director Paul Brearley said the alarm was raised after a customer said the object had been left at the side of a car.

The owner of the car said the case was not theirs and the store was immediately cleared.

Mr Brearley said: "Security staff went out and called police to take a look at it.

"They couldn't really determine what it was so called the bomb squad and we evacuated the store. We managed to get customers out of the car park quite quickly and staff moved to the rear of the store.

"It was quite busy at the time with around 200 customers. Everything is back to normal now and a lot of people came back to pick up shopping where they had left it.

"In the end there was no real danger and it is not something which happens very frequently."

Mystery still surrounds who left the case in the car park.

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Zoe Lee confirmed police were called to Hooty's at just after 10.30am yesterday. She said area was cordoned off as experts were called in to carry out a controlled explosion before everything was cleared by 12.55pm.