'No Obvious Signs' of an Explosion in North Yorkshire
Police looking into reports of an explosion in North Yorkshire say they found "no obvious signs" of one. Officers carried out extensive searches at Catterick yesterday after eight people got in touch with them saying they'd heard something. Specially trained search officers from North Yorkshire Police, experts from the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, explosives detection dogs, the National Police Air Service and military search personnel were all involved in the search. It meant the A1 had to be closed for a number of hours. Superintendent Dave Hannan of North Yorkshire Police, said: "We appreciate that members of the public will ask why the road had to be shut for so long. In view of the location of the suspected explosion, the source of the information, the current threat to UK security and a report a few hours earlier of a vehicle seen in suspicious circumstances outside the barracks, we were not prepared to take any chances with people's safety and had to carry out a very extensive and thorough investigation. "Officers have worked throughout the night and day to identify and locate the driver of the vehicle and we are now satisfied that he was not connected to the reported explosion and we have now eliminated him from our enquiries. We thank the driver of the vehicle for his patience and cooperation. We have also ruled out any link to terrorism. "We may never find out what the source of the explosion was, however, following the search and investigation I am now satisfied that there is no threat to members of the public. A number of possibilities have been looked into, however, there is no information or evidence to say this reported explosion was a criminal or deliberate act." During the course of the search, the army's bomb disposal unit was called to the discovery of the box of ageing detonators near the perimeter fence of Marne Barracks, these have now been removed for safe disposal. However, these were not the cause of the reported explosion.