The bomb squad blew up a suspicious package in Brighton this afternoon (Friday 21 February).
Lewes Road was closed after a suspicious package was found in a bag in Dewe Road at lunchtime, causing traffic to be gridlocked.
Brighton University students and staff were evacuated from Mithras House as were dozens of building workers on the site.
Just after 2pm Sussex Police said: “Following a report of a suspicious package, Dewe Road, the A270 Lewes Road and surrounding roads are currently closed.
“A 100m cordon (is) in place for safety. Affected homes and buildings are being evacuated as precaution.
“Please avoid the area and find alternative travel routes.”
Later police tweeted: “We have reopened the A270 Lewes Road, Brighton, in both directions.
“The closure of Dewe Road and the surrounding cordon remains in place as we investigate a report of a suspicious package.”
Just before 5.30pm police tweeted an update: “The Explosive Ordance Disposal unit (EOD) have carried out a controlled explosion on an item in Dewe Road, Brighton.
“They are continuing to assess the scene.
“Affected homes and buildings remain evacuated and some roads remain closed.
“We apologise for the disruption.”
I live in a house opposite. In Dewe Road. And no one bothered to evacuate us. Didn’t even tell us what was going on. Just closed the roads and got their little robot out.
Kinda comical they evacuated a huge strong building (Mithras House) and a building site that would have been shielded by Mithras house. But all of us with windows facing the “package” were ignored.
Also note – if they had asked us we would have pointed out the “package” was a trash bag. Often dumped on that same ledge. Whatever it was it was so light that when the Bomb Squad shot it with the shotgun it just disappeared.
Maybe this is a new way of dealing with Fly Tipping? A good training exercise for the guys.
They fired a shotgun? Also were you watching as it was fired?
The shotgun is standard procedure for the bomb squad robot. Their robot can be seen in the images on another paper’s website. It has a shotgun built into the arm which is used to scatter \ disrupt the device. It was run down the road on remote control by the bomb squad guys.
There was no police or army guys anywhere near the device when the robot was on scene.
In this case it was a plastic bag with someone’s lunch rubbish in it which had been on that ledge for a few days. Often get trash like that thrown up there. Police are just trained to be over cautious in modern day.
I was not looking out of the window at the time, partially due to police advice to stay back from the window. I heard the single shot from a couple of doors away and another neighbour of mine was watching directly at the time and watch the plastic bag blow away when hit.
I notice some reports talked of two shots – but this will have been the echo bouncing off of Mithras House as the rest of the public were kept back at Milner Road where the bomb squad truck was parked.
Fascinating to watch.