United Left Red Faced After it Emerges that Bomb Scare was a Security Team Goof Up

Manchester United's season descended from poor to farcical when their must win last game of the season against AFC Bournemouth was cancelled following the discovery of an item in the stands that looked like a bomb. The 'bomb', as it were, was discovered 45 minuted ahead of kick off but the security team at the club was alarmed since it looked like a live bomb and several stands at the stadium were evacuated, before the game was eventually called off at the advice of the bomb disposal squad.

However, reports have now emerged that the entire thing was caused due to the laxity of the security personnel at the ground and the object that looked like a live 'bomb' was actually a prop for a pre match security drill that had not been taken away later on. The game will now be played on Tuesday but at the time when the game was abandoned, it looked like the best course of action. As one security personnel at the ground was quoted as saying when describing the object, 'It certainly did not look like something you would want to mess with.' The English Premier League had also released a statement prior to the later developments, 'When it comes to matters of security it is obviously right that Manchester United and the Premier League place the safety of supporters and employees foremost. It is always the last resort to abandon one of our fixtures and while we apologise for the inconvenience caused to fans we are sure, in the circumstances, they will appreciate the need to do so.'

John O'Hare, a police assistant chief constable in the Greater Manchester came up with the most logical reaction to the discovery that the whole thing was an error. "We have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving search dogs. While this item did not turn out to be a viable explosive, on appearance this device was as real as could be, and the decision to evacuate the stadium was the right thing to do, until we could be sure that people were not at risk." On the other hand, Tony Lloyd, the Crime Commissioner has asked the club to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.