Accordion sparked police terror alert on railway

POLICE have revealed an accordion, a guillotine and even hay were among items that have sparked 18 bomb scares at West Midland train stations since 2013.

British Transport Police (BTP) revealed the list of bizarre and every day items that have sparked the false alarms in a Freedom of Information request.

But the force insisted that it wanted public transport passengers to continue to be the “eyes and ears” of the network as it urged them to continue reporting suspicions.

Other items which sparked some of the 18 bomb scares in Birmingham and the West Midlands included: suitcases, a wooden crate, rucksacks, plastic jars, a shopping bag, an e-cigarette, a lighting inverter, an ipad and money boxes.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “We want people to feel comfortable to report things, regardless of whether they turn out to be something as innocent as an empty bag. Last year we launched See It, Say It, Sorted – a partnership campaign with the Department for Transport – to encourage people to report anything suspicious when travelling on the railway.

“We’re not asking the public or rail staff to decide whether something is terrorism-related. That’s our job. The whole aim of the campaign is to encourage people to tell us if they see or hear anything they are con- cerned about, and we, as the experts, will deal with it. No piece of information is too small or insignificant and we rely heavily on passengers and staff to be our eyes and ears.”

The new head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit said last week that the biggest threat faced by the police and security services was the threat from returning terrorists who had previously travelled abroad to fight in places like Syria and Iraq.