This is the moment a bomb squad robot trundled through an eerily empty street towards a cordoned off double-decker bus.
Footage shows the robot rolling towards the bus before it detonated a ‘suspicious’ package in a controlled explosion at Chester railway station last night.
The empty station building can be seen in the video, as well as the double-decker bus, whose hazard lights were flashing.
Cheshire Police said in a statement last night: ‘At 5.09pm today, Friday November 22, police received a report of suspicious activity on two buses in Chester city centre.
‘One near the train station and one near bus interchange. As a precaution a cordon was put in place and a number of roads were closed while we investigated the report. EOD attended with other emergency services to assist.’
One person at the scene told Cheshire Live that there was ‘quite a lot of panic’ among people near the station.
Another added said there were told by a police officer on the scene that ‘there’s a bomb and we needed to move’.
Train and bus services were disrupted due to the incident at Chester station, with services to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport affected.
Footage shows the robot rolling towards the bus before it detonated a ‘suspicious’ package in a controlled explosion at the train station in Chester last night
The empty station building can be seen in the video, as well as the double-decker bus, whose hazard lights were flashing
‘All was in order, the cordon was released and roads reopened,’ Cheshire Police said.
‘We understand that this caused some disruption and concern but we are now happy there is nothing untoward. Thank you for your patience while we dealt with this incident.’
Earlier on Friday, Gatwick Airport was plunged into chaos when a suspicious package was found.
The UK’s second busiest airport was closed to new passengers as Sussex Police deployed its bomb disposal unit following the discovery yesterday.
The incident caused mass disruption to outbound and inbound flights with more than 50 departures and arrivals cancelled, and British Airways halting at least 30 departures to Spain, Portugal, Trinidad and Islamabad.
MailOnline understands the operation at Gatwick had been elevated to gold command – the highest response level.
The airport released a statement at 2.44pm which said: ‘The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police.
An armed police officer on the road close to Gatwick Airport yesterday
Crowds of passengers wait outside Gatwick Airport as numerous flights were delayed
Passengers stand outside Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal in the freezing cold following the security alert yesterday
Passengers and staff run for the exits at Gatwick airport as it was evacuated on Friday
‘The south terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly.’
It added: ‘There are some delays and cancellations. Passengers should contact their airline for any updates on flights.’
Thousands of passengers were seen outside the terminal and the surrounding area in videos posted online after the terminal shut for several hours.
Emergency foil blankets were distributed to some of the passengers who were waiting in the cold, social media pictures showed.
Witnesses told MailOnline they had seen police with ‘explosive’ patches on their jackets and sniffer dogs entering the terminal.
