|
|
| LadyJane |
Bastards are targeting the entertainment district on a busy Saturday night.
This really sucks!!! 
LJ.
|
|
|
| stewed & Keefed |
Threat credible says police chief
Hundreds of people spent the night at Aston University
Thousands evacuated from Birmingham city centre faced "a real and very credible threat", West Midlands Chief Constable Paul Scott Lee has said.
Mr Scott Lee declined to describe the nature of the threat but said intelligence indicated it was genuine.
He said the decision to evacuate up to 20,000 people from the city centre had not been taken lightly and came after a "very specific threat".
The city centre has now fully reopened to the public.
Four suspect packages were blown up but Mr Scott Lee said they had nothing to do with the intelligence warnings.
The people of Birmingham were in danger last night
West Midlands Chief Constable Paul Scott Lee
"The threat that we responded to was very specific," he said at a news conference. "It was specific about the time and also the locations."
West Midlands Police put up an exclusion cordon around the A38 inner city ring road after the warnings were received.
Mr Scott Lee said: "Bearing in mind the current world climate, the public's safety is our absolute priority," he said. "We haven't had this level of threat before (in Birmingham).
"The people of Birmingham were in danger last night."
Hundreds of people left stranded by the evacuation stayed at Aston University overnight.
Traffic was not allowed into the city centre
At 0500 BST on Sunday bomb disposal experts declared that a suspect package at the Travelodge hotel on Broad Street was not a "credible device".
Police carried out four controlled explosions on a bus in Corporation Street, in the city centre.
The areas cordoned off included the Broad Street entertainment district and the city's Chinese quarter which are crowded with bars, theatres, restaurants, flats and hotels.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said the cordon around Broad Street and the Chinese quarter had now been lifted.
George Redman was drinking in a bar in the city centre. He told BBC News: "We were a bit frightened... we were told we'd all got to leave. We saw people rushing but it was pretty calm."
French student Natalie Perrier, 19, was evacuated from her flat in the Brindleyplace canal side area near Broad Street.
She said: "I saw helicopters in front of my house, there were three police cars as well going around the streets.
"I was just scared. I didn't know what was happening."
'Highly unusual'
BBC Home Affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford believed the issuing of a public warning by police showed there must have been information of a "fairly specific and credible" threat.
"It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented to evacuate a whole city centre."
West Midlands Police announced they had received intelligence of a possible threat to the area at about 2015 BST.
Initially people were told to be on their guard, and that bars and restaurants were being searched. Motorists were also told not to come into the city centre.
However, about half an hour later, police said the city was to be evacuated.
|
|
