Police evacuate Glasgow and Essex universities after reports of suspicious packages
Universities in Essex and Glasgow have been partly evacuated today as police investigate reports of suspicious packages.
Read more: Police investigating explosives at Waterloo and City and Heathrow Airports
The evacuations come after police found IEDs at two London airports and a train station yesterday.
Essex Police said: “We have received a call today about a suspicious package at University of Essex.
As a precaution we have put a 100m cordon in place and we have evacuated a section of the university and nearby buildings.”
It has called in the Ministry of Defence’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.
We have received a call today about a suspicious package at University of Essex in #Colchester.
As a precaution we have put a 100m cordon in place and we have evacuated a section of the university and nearby buildings.
We await the arrival of the Ministry of Defences’ EOD team. pic.twitter.com/y4Nqg2YvZl
— Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) March 6, 2019
Meanwhile the University of Glasgow evacuated several buildings on the main campus “as a precautionary measure” after a suspicious package was found in the university’s mailroom.
“Police are dealing with the matter and we will provide regular updates,” it told students.
https://twitter.com/UofGlasgow/status/1103259309511725056
Improvised explosive devices arrived at Waterloo station, City airport and Heathrow airport yesterday.
Staff at Heathrow opened their package, “causing the device to initiate”, which led to part of the A4-sized white postal bags to burn.
Read more: Three killed as huge blast rocks Paris city centre
Trains at Waterloo and flights from both airports continued to operate as normal while police made the devices safe.