So everyone there please take care.
― Andy Jay, Saturday, 9 July 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)
― Andy Jay, Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)
― StanM (StanM), Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)
― Andy Jay, Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)
― StanM (StanM), Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)
DEVELOPING STORY: Birmingham, England, police evacuating the city after intelligence suggested some type of threat, the switchboard operator said.
It's the city CENTER, you hysteria-provoking media scumbags.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 9 July 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)
Lets hope it's a hoax and everyone is safe.estimated 30,000 people evacuated.
― Andy Jay, Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)
Hopefully its just lost bags or whatever.
― Andy Jay, Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)
― stet (stet), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)
― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)
"We're about to get arrested!"
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)
Could even a busload of conventional explosives warrant hurtling 20,000 people out the way?
― stet (stet), Sunday, 10 July 2005 01:57 (twenty years ago)
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Sunday, 10 July 2005 02:09 (twenty years ago)
― Nevada Lime (nordicskilla), Sunday, 10 July 2005 02:17 (twenty years ago)
Thousands evacuated from Birmingham city centre faced "a real and very credible threat", West Midlands Chief Constable Paul Scott Lee has said.
Mr Scott Lee declined to describe the nature of the threat but said intelligence indicated it was genuine.
He said the decision to evacuate up to 20,000 people from the city centre had not been taken lightly and came after a "very specific threat".
The city centre has now fully reopened to the public.
Four suspect packages were blown up but Mr Scott Lee said they had nothing to do with the intelligence warnings.
"The threat that we responded to was very specific," he said at a news conference. "It was specific about the time and also the locations."
West Midlands Police put up an exclusion cordon around the A38 inner city ring road after the warnings were received.
Mr Scott Lee said: "Bearing in mind the current world climate, the public's safety is our absolute priority," he said. "We haven't had this level of threat before (in Birmingham).
"The people of Birmingham were in danger last night."
Hundreds of people spent the night at Aston University
At 0500 BST on Sunday bomb disposal experts declared that a suspect package at the Travelodge hotel on Broad Street was not a "credible device".
Police carried out four controlled explosions on a bus in Corporation Street, in the city centre.
The areas cordoned off included the Broad Street entertainment district and the city's Chinese quarter which are crowded with bars, theatres, restaurants, flats and hotels.
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4668313.stm
― Andy Jay, Sunday, 10 July 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)
but what else can the police do in these situation? there's always some twat who thinks it's funny/clever to create a bomb scare: at a time of heightened security like this, all they can do is take the safest possible option.
i'm still unclear whether the original threat/warning in birmingham was phoned in or based on intelligence. either way: i think the police did the right thing.
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 10 July 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)
― stet (stet), Sunday, 10 July 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)
― StanM (StanM), Monday, 11 July 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)