Cigarette causes M6 terror alert

Friday 6 July 2012

A PASSENGER using an electronic cigarette which gives off a vapour caused armed police to swoop on a coach in a terror alert which closed a motorway for more than four hours.

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Armed officers, troops, firefighters and bomb disposal experts all went to the scene on the M6 toll road near Lichfield after a passenger on the Megabus, operated by Stagecoach, reported seeing vapour coming from a man's bag.

A decontamination unit was set up and passengers were searched and held in a makeshift pen on the carriageway, but police found no crime had been committed.The man was simply using an electronic cigarette, rather than the real thing, on the journey from Preston to London."We can now confirm that, whilst this was a genuine security alert, the significant concerns reported to us were unfounded," a Staffordshire Police spokeswoman said.

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Cigarette causes M6 terror alert

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