College evacuated over bomb scare

A Lancashire college had to be evacuated following a bomb scare.

Students and staff were evacuated from Blackburn College after it received a call at about 1300 BST claiming there was a bomb on the premises.

A short time later an unattended suspicious package was found. The police were called and the area was cordoned off.

The police, together with the Army Bomb Disposal Unit, examined the package which was found not to be suspicious.

The cordon was later removed. A police investigation is now under way to find out who made the hoax call.

Ch Insp Terry Woods said: "Our main priority is always the safety of the public and I would like to thank people for their patience this afternoon.

"We will carry out a thorough investigation into the call which was made to the college and the person responsible will be dealt with appropriately.

"Hoax calls put people's lives in danger by diverting emergency service resources away from serving the general public."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police.