Sports

Man United bomb scare, a security blunder

Published

8 years ago

May 17, 2016

Ripples Nigeria

Man United bomb scare, a security blunder

Manchester United have issued a five-point statement following

the events on Sunday that saw their Premier League contest with

Bournemouth abandoned.

United’s final game of the campaign, against the Cherries at Old Trafford, was originally postponed and then abandoned on Sunday afternoon after the ground was evacuated and a potential terror threat was found in the stadium.

A controlled explosion was used to detonate the device and United’s game with Bournemouth has now been moved to Tuesday evening.

The device had been determined to be a dud, used in a training exercise by a security company at United’s ground.

Writing on the United official website, executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward

said: “The safety of the fans is our number one aim at every event we host at Old Trafford. Overall, I’m proud of how our staff responded.

He added that, “On the discovery of a suspect package, the police and the club worked quickly and closely to identify the threat, make people safe and evacuate the ground calmly and efficiently.

“Following investigation, the device proved to have been left in error following the training of dog handlers by a sub-contractor.

The contractor had signed the device as having been recovered along with the 13 other devices at the end of the exercise.

“Once a live situation was identified, the club and police had no option but to treat the matter as a potential terror threat; we could not have assumed it was a training exercise error. Presented with the same situation in the future, we would takethe same action,” he added.

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