A suspicious wife triggered a full scale bomb alert in Leeds by hiding a
tracking device in her husband's car before he went to work.
Plans were being made to evacuate schools after the unnamed man, who is a
retired member of the armed services, spotted the device and dialed
999, telling the operator: "It looks like there's a viable device in my
car."
West Yorkshire Police decided the man's military background identified
him as a potential terror target and launched pre-planned emergency
procedures, including evacuating nearby homes and preparing a reception center.
Officers set up a cordon around the man's car in Woodhouse.
Council officials also discussed widening it and evacuating schools and
public buildings.
Photographs of the suspicious-looking device were sent to the bomb
squad, who identified it as a GPS tracker almost an hour after the alarm
was raised at 10am on Tuesday.
Sources say the police established the tracker had been unsuccessfully hidden in the car by the man's wife.
West Yorkshire Police have confirmed they dealt with a suspicious
package in a car, while Leeds City Council say their emergency planning
team was involved in the incident.
"We were asked by the police to invoke our emergency procedures and
began preparing a reception center and made arrangements to transport
evacuees," said a spokeswoman.
No details have been released about why the woman tried to hide the
device in the car.
No comments:
Post a Comment