A Lancashire shopping centre was evacuated on Thursday after an "incendiary device" was discovered on the premises. Police believe that the device, found in a bin in the men's toilets, had been "ignited" and had the potential to cause "serious injury".
Customers were cleared from the Fishergate Shopping Centre in Preston at around 9am following a tip-off from a member of the public. A local recorded a video clip showing shoppers being escorted away from the building "as a precaution" by marshals in hi-vis jackets.
Lancashire Police Chief Superintendent James Lee described the suspicious object as "a small incendiary device", adding that it "could have caused damage or injury to someone had it fully gone off". The Lancashire Evening Post reports that the device was apparently made using an asthma inhaler, firelighters and matches.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After police and bomb disposal officers attended the scene, the centre remained closed for the rest of the day, although it is set to open as normal today.
Police now wish to speak to a man caught on CCTV carrying a bag on an escalator inside the nearby St George's shopping centre at around 8.30am, forty minutes before the device was discovered. The man appears to be wearing a black cap, black sweatshirt and blue jeans.
Detective Chief Inspector Jill Johnston said: "We are treating this as a criminal investigation and while the motivation for this incident remains unclear at this stage, we believe this device has been left there deliberately and did have the potential to cause serious injury if it had exploded."
-
What we know about the Copenhagen mall shootingSpeed Read Lone gunman had mental health issues and not thought to have terror motive, police say
-
Texas school shooting: parents turn anger on policeSpeed Read Officers had to be urged to enter building where gunman killed 21 people
-
DJ Tim Westwood denies multiple sexual misconduct allegationsSpeed Read At least seven women accuse the radio and TV presenter of predatory behaviour dating back three decades
-
What happened to Katie Kenyon?Speed Read Man charged as police search for missing 33-year-old last seen getting into van
-
Brooklyn subway shooting: exploring New York’s ‘steep decline in law and order’Speed Read Last week, a gunman set off smoke bombs and opened fire on a rush-hour train in the city
-
How the Capitol attack investigation is splitting the RepublicansSpeed Read Vote to censure two Republican representatives has revealed deep divisions within party
-
Is sentencing a Nazi sympathiser to read Shakespeare an appropriate punishment?Speed Read Judge seemed to think introducing student ‘to high culture’ would ‘magically make him a better person’ said The Daily Telegraph
-
Sarah Everard’s murder: a national reckoning?Speed Read Wayne Couzen’s guilty plea doesn’t ‘tidy away the reality of sexual violence’
