Bomb scares in major UK cities

[acw]

Yesterday there was a large bomb scare in Manchester.  The Mancunian Way was closed for hours, as was a large section of the Oxford Road - VERY near to the BBC.  Yet this did not merit a mention on the national pages of the BBC website. 

I appreciate that bomb scares are not as newsworthy as real explosions, but it is nonetheless an example of terrorism disrupting our daily lives. 

Seeing that Manchester did not get national coverage made me realise that this must be going on elsewhere without my knowledge. 

Therefore my question is:

Have there been any major scares in your town/city?  Not necessarily a real threat, but big evacuations/road closures etc. 

PS - I know about the big one in Birmingham earlier in the week. 

[Artful]

A good question, acw. I'm sure there are many bomb scares we don't hear about, but I expect it's possible protocol on the part of the news programmers and journalists (I mean, there must be a certain protocol to follow) that they don't panic everyone, or give people ideas... At least I hope so. Anyway if there has been one up in my mountain I haven't heard about it.

[Artful]

Whoops! A UK city, sorry; I'm talking about a French village...

[c00ky83]

Someone found a bag in Darlington and the town was sealed off!  I mean Darlington - that well known Al-Qaeda target up North?  Get real - are we going to flee for the hills every time someone finds some rubbish in the street?

 

We shouldn't be complacent, but should maintain common sense.  If it's going to happen again it will - remember, people were dead last week before anything was sealed off.

[acw]

Guess it just shows how hot the police have to be.  After all,  maybe terrorists would use the "least likely place" idea to catch us out.  Considering how "obvious" Twin Towers on 9/11 seems now, it obviously wasn't obvious enough at the time.  Still, like we've all said - better safe than sorry!

[hellywellywo]

going back 12 years when the IRA were still active the town I lived in was always being searched.  We lived ina town with a huge army barracks attatched to it (around 3000 bodies lived there) and the barracks itself was always shutting down to civillians because of phone call tip off's but it was never in the news.  Our school in the same town had a hoax caller claiming a bomb was planted there too but it was reported on any news because it was always happening.

[BigDogsWang]

2003 - Kettering. Yes, KETTERING!!

Someone left an old Cooler Box down an alley way next to Boots. We all got turfed out on to the streets (bit daft really, you'd think we'd be safer in our building) for over an hour whilst a bomb squad robot fannied about for ages only to discover it was completely empty! Didnt get a mention on the local or national news, but made a small column in the Northants Evening Post.

Mind you, got us out of work for a while.

[GracieC]

There was a sign today at my tube station informing us all that in the last 6 days 100 (yes, 100!) bags have been left unattended!!!! That would account for the numerous security alerts on the tube this week then... 

[nfn]

In 2003 a post office in the small Norfolk village of Snettisham received a package of white powder sent from Iraq which resulted in the immediate area being sealed - it was found to be sand sent by a local soldier to his family. It made the local paper. Small potatoes maybe.

If we report every bomb scare, mysterious package etc we are giving oxygen to the fire which the terrorists are so desperate to fan. I would rather not know about individual threats (unless directly affected) as this will reduce the publicity.

I'm not a NIMBY, just desperate to stop these attacks. I hope you understand what I mean. I just want these attacks to stop, all over the world..

[acw]

Thanks for your continued input guys.  I actually posted this nearly a week ago and had let it all die down for the very reasons you suggested nfn.  By making the post at all nfn, you have inadvertantly brought this thread to more people's attention thus defeating the object you were seeking to serve!!!  Just shows that we keep doing it - even when we don't mean to!!!!

I do wholeheartedly agree with you though!