AN ABANDONED suitcase caused a lunchtime scare at a busy shopping centre in Wrexham.
Police were called to Eagles Meadow at about 1pm yesterday, where a black suitcase had been discovered padlocked to a set of railings.
However, the suitcase was found to contain clothes and was taken to the lost property department at Wrexham police station.
Rumours of a bomb scare made the rounds on social networking site Twitter.
User ‘Peter Cross’ wrote: “Which idiot padlocked a bag to the stairs at Eagles Meadow? Feel a full evacuation coming.”
And ‘Nick Barwell’ wrote: “Still waiting for North Wales Police to arrive. Eagles Meadow bomb scare.”
Stores were not evacuated during the incident.
One worker told the Leader: “One minute we were told there was a suspicious object, and then next minute they were hacksawing it off the railings.”
A spokesman for Eagles Meadow said: “A police officer came at our request to offer advice and assistance.
“There was nothing untoward in the case which was taken away and is now in the lost property department at Wrexham police station awaiting collection by its owner.”
North Wales Police spokesman Michael McGivern added: “We got a call at 12.53pm to reports of a suspicious object which had been chained to banister railings at Eagles Meadow shopping centre.
“We investigated and it turned out to be a small suitcase containing clothes, which has been taken to Wrexham police station.”