Old Trafford bomb scare that saw Manchester Unite game abandoned was sparked by 'training device' accidentally left behind

Evacuation: Fans leave the stadium
Getty
Tom Marshall16 May 2016

A suspicious item which sparked the evacuation of Old Trafford was a "training device" which was accidentally left behind, police say.

Bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on the suspicious item which was described as an "incredibly lifelike explosive device" by Greater Manchester Police.

The security scare led to Manchester United's final Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth being postponed.

The Stretford End and Sir Alex Ferguson Stand were evacuated around 20 minutes before the scheduled kick-off of 3pm after an announcement was made for security personnel to invoke "operation red code".

Greater Manchester Police has now revealed that the suspicious item "was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs".

The item looked like a mobile phone attached to a pipe and was spotted by a staff member, according to the Manchester Evening News.

Earlier, Greater Manchester Police said on Twitter: "Bomb disposal experts carried out controlled explosion at Old Trafford on what is described as incredibly lifelike explosive device...

“Full assessment now concluded and found device wasn't viable.

A full search of the stadium is ongoing. Full update to follow.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in