Tens of thousands of fans were on Sunday evacuated from the 75,000 capacity Old Trafford stadium following a bomb scare.
The fans of both teams, Manchester United and Bournemouth were gathered for their last game of the Premiership when it was announced over the public address system that a “suspect package” had been found in the north-west quadrant – the corner between the North Stand and Stretford End.
The bomb squad was later invited to carry out a controlled explosion after which they found out what the “suspect package” was.
“Following today’s controlled explosion, we have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs,” said Assistant Chief Constable John O’Hare of the Greater Manchester Police.
According to CNN, O’Hare said “Whilst this item did not turn out to be a viable explosive, on appearance this device was as real as could be, and the decision to evacuate the stadium was the right thing to do, until we could be sure that people were not at risk.”
The results of the explosion showed the device was actually a mock-up, described by police as ‘incredibly lifelike’.
In what appears to be a staggering blunder, the ‘bomb’ was left at the stadium in error by an external training company in the days leading up to the game. A training exercise was held at the venue and the device, designed to look authentic, was not returned at its conclusion.
The match will be replayed at 8pm on Tuesday night and will be shown live on Sky Sports.
One security official, who saw the device, said: ‘It certainly did not look like something you would want to mess with.’
