Thousands of people have been evacuated from Birmingham city centre after police issued a terror warning.
Bomb squad officers reportedly carried out a series of controlled explosions in the Broad Street entertainment district.
West Midlands Police said no vehicles are being allowed past the inner ring road.
Around 200 bars, restaurants and clubs were being emptied and searched
Assistant chief constable Stuart Hyde said police had received an intelligence warning of a "substantial threat".
"I don't believe that the incident that we are dealing with this evening is connected with the events of July 7 in London. I want to make that pretty clear," he said.
"We have evacuated an area of Birmingham city centre and we are asking people who are there at the moment to go home, to have the evening off, this will help us considerably."
Mr Hyde said a controlled explosion was carried out on a bus in Corporation Street following a call from a member of the public.
However, it was thought the item destroyed had not posed a threat.
Allan Sartori, a Birmingham club owner, said police appeared to have the situation under control in the city centre.
He said evacuating the city centre would have cost "a lot of people a lot of money".
But he added: "People's lives are far more important than money in a situation like this."
No comments:
Post a Comment