Bomb scare caused by smoke alarm

A SMOKE alarm dumped in a rubbish bin sparked a major bomb alert which shut down part of Perth city centre.

Police threw a cordon across busy Edinburgh Road after reports of a strange, electronic beeping noise.

A stretch of road from the prison to Marshall Place was locked down for two hours as officers investigated. Officers on cycles patrolled the South Inch site and kept members of the public at bay.

Local police consulted with the army’s explosives team in Edinburgh on how to handle the suspect package, while lengthy tailbacks of traffic were diverted through a network of side streets.

Emergency services were called at around 10.45am. A specialist police searcher was tasked with approaching and probing the public bin.

He found and deactivated a small smoke alarm.

It was emitting a l oud bleeping noise to indicate its battery was flat.

A police spokesman described the incident as a “false alarm with good intent”. He said: “The cordon was placed around the area as a precaution.

“At the end of the day it was nothing more than a smoke alarm, but of course we do have to take incidents like this seriously.”

Crowds around the cordon cheered when the repetitive beeping was finally switched off.