London: One of London’s most famous shopping streets was today temporarily evacuated as Scotland Yard investigated a suspicious vehicle which was later cleared by the bomb squad.
Regent Street in central London, which is currently over-crowded with last-minute Christmas shoppers, came to a standstill as police set up a cordon outside Hamley’s toy store in the middle of the street.
The vehicle in question was later confirmed as “non-suspicious”.
Offices and shops in the area had to be placed under lock-down briefly as the Metropolitan Police bomb squad was called in to inspect the suspicious vehicle in the middle of the road.
Pictures on social media showed an iconic London black cab with a broken window — reportedly shot through by the unit.
“The vehicle was examined and proved to be non- suspicious. Regent Street is now re-open following the earlier incident,” a Met Police spokesperson said.
The UK has been on high alert since the Islamic State (ISIS) terror attacks in Paris last month. This is the second time in weeks that an alert has been sparked in central London over a suspicious vehicle.
A similar incident on December 1 took place near the BBC headquarters, a few yards from where today’s incident panned out.