Edinburgh's Princes Street on LOCKDOWN after police investigate 'suspicious package'
POLICE swooped in on Princes Street in Edinburgh at lunchtime after a suspicious package was found at a bank.
Edinburgh: Police take statements on Princes Street
Police were called at about 12.30pm when a suspect package was found at Halifax and bomb disposal experts attended shortly after. Nearby shops were evacuated on the busy street in Scotland’s capital and a police cordon was put in place. The city's tram service and bus routes were also disrupted while officers investigated.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Police in Edinburgh received a report of a suspicious package having been received at a business premises on Princes Street at around 12.30pm on Thursday 7th March.
“The building has been evacuated as a precaution and officers are in attendance to progress inquiries.”
Shopper Peter Simpson took to Twitter to say he had been evacuated from book shop Waterstones.
He said: “Just got evacuated out of Waterstones on Princes Street, not sure what's going on but seems serious - police everywhere, half the street getting cordoned off.”
Another Twitter user wrote: “Idk what’s going on in town but there’s police everywhere and a huge stretch of princes street is closed as well as part of Charlotte square.”
A third added: “Princes Street chaotic just now due to Police Incident.”
One witness told STV News that Halifax, Waterstones and Sports Direct were sealed off.
They said: "At the moment there are police everywhere from the corner of Queensferry Street, round Charlotte Square and down to Princes Street, there are even a couple of officers stationed on Rose Street.
"The central focus appears to be Charlotte Square and Princes Street, incident response ambulances and several areas taped off including, Waterstones, Halifax and Sports Direct.
"Individual police officers stationed at each corner of the area.
"Does look to be either a very serious incident or it's at least been taken very seriously.
"I've never seen such a large number of police in one place in my life, especially in Edinburgh."
Witness Neil Broadfoot said he was evacuated from Waterstones.
He said: "We were sitting in Waterstone's having a coffee. We got wind there was something going on. People started moving, staff came up and said they had been told by police they had to evacuate the building. We were shepherded outside.
"There was no sense of panic, we saw the police tape going up and heard the sirens and then the first van arrived.
"That's all we have been told but given what happened yesterday in London and Glasgow people were obviously concerned."
We received a report of a suspicious package having been received at a business premises on Princes Street at around 12.30pm today.
— Edinburgh Police (@EdinburghPolice) March 7, 2019
The building has been evacuated as a precaution & officers are in attendance to progress inquiries.
We will provide further updates in due course
The street has now been reopened following the incident.
It comes after a number of the University of Glasgow’s buildings were closed yesterday after a suspicious item was found in the mailroom.
Police Scotland are liaising with the Metropolitan Police to establish whether the Glasgow incident was connected to packages sent to Waterloo Station and Heathrow Airport from Ireland.