Old Trafford 'bomb' scare: Calls for 'urgent' full inquiry into evacuation

Manchester's police commissioner has called for a full inquiry into "fake bomb" scare at Old Trafford that saw the stadium evacuated and Manchester United's last Premier League match of the season against Bournemouth abandoned.

Tony Lloyd, who is also the Greater Manchester mayor, said the urgent evacuation just minutes before kick-off on Sunday afternoon put fans in danger and called it a "fiasco".

Police said the match was suspended following the discovery of an "incredibly lifelike but non-viable explosive device", understood to have been a mobile phone taped to a gas pipe in a toilet in Old Traford's North West Quadrant.

It was mistakenly left behind after being used in a training exercise involving sniffer dogs run by a private company, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said.

Mr Lloyd said it was "outrageous" a simple blunder could cause such disruption, and said there must be an urgent inquiry into "how this happened, why it happened and who will be held accountable".

He said: "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.

"Whilst this in no way demeans the professionalism of the police and stewards responsible for getting the fans out, or the supporters' calmness and cooperation during the evacuation, it is unacceptable that it happened in the first place."

Bournemouth's players flew home around two hours after the initial "Code Red" alert sounded at Old Trafford, as damage to the stadium caused by a controlled explosion of the device, conducted by the Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal Unit, made playing the match on Monday impossible.

United had been expecting a capacity crowd in excess of 75,000 for the fixture, which will now take place at 8pm on Tuesday.

Premier League clubs have noticeably stepped up security measures amid a heightened state of alert throughout the UK, particularly in the wake of the Paris attacks last November.

But the abandonment of Sunday’s game at Old Trafford was the first time a Premier League fixture has been called off due to security concerns.

Last November’s international friendly between Germany and Holland in Hanover was abandoned an hour before kick-off due to ‘concrete intelligence’ that an attack was being planned at the fixture, just four days after the deadly attacks in Paris which were instigated by a suicide bomber at the Stade de France during France’s game against Germany.

The game was called off after discussions between the Football Association, the Premier League and police, and it is understood that, as a goodwill gesture, United will offer supporters a refund as well as a free ticket for the rescheduled game. The gesture is estimated to cost the club around £3 million.

The rescheduled match will take place four days before United play Crystal Palace at Wembley in the FA Cup final, but there is little for the Manchester club now to play for. With Manchester City drawing in its final game away at Swansea, it is all but mathematically impossible for United to take fourth place and qualify for the Champions League.