Old Trafford was the scene of a major security alert on Sunday, with Manchester United’s final day clash with Bournemouth postponed after a suspicious device was found at the stadium. However, on Sunday evening, police confirmed that the package was nothing more than a dummy device left behind after a training exercise.
The training exercise took place on Wednesday and was run by a private company, who erroneously left one of their dummy ‘bombs’ in Old Trafford. The device was ultimately destroyed by the Bomb Squad, but the whole incident has left the local constabulary with egg on their face.
Greater Manchester’s Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd vowed to oversee a full enquiry after saying that the whole situation was “unacceptable”. He added:
This fiasco caused massive inconvenience to supporters who had come from far and wide to watch the match, wasted the time of huge numbers of police officers and the army’s bomb squad, and unnecessarily put people in danger, as evacuating tens of thousands of people from a football stadium is not without risk.
The Premier League has since rescheduled the game for 8pm on Tuesday while Manchester United will be refunding tickets for the game while they’ll also be allowing ticket holders in to the game, which will reportedly cost the club around £3million.
What a drama. And what an embarrassment! Although fair dues to the stadium security on the day for successfully dealing with the situation.