The intu Victoria Centre has been evacuated due to reports of a suspicious package.
The evacuation reportedly began at around 5pm and a bomb disposal unit was seen arriving an hour later.
The surrounding roads have also been cordoned off by police.
At 5.28pm, @intuVictoriaCen tweeted: “We are aware that an incident had occurred. We will issue a further update as soon as we can”.
This was followed at 6.22pm by a tweet stating, “We can confirm that intu Victoria Centre has been evacuated. We will update you as soon as we have further information”.
Third year Geography student Sarah Murnaghan was shopping at the time: ‘‘We were in Luvyababes when all the alarms started going off and we were told to leave. The shop staff just said ‘please put everything down, we need to go now'”.
“We were all being held outside wherever they could find space, and the security staff were very vague on what was going on. They said ‘everyone stay calm, we can go in soon’. The police wouldn’t give [any] details,” she added.
“We walked round back to Upper Parliament Street and police cars had blocked the roads. All the pavements were sealed off and they were diverting people away”.
The Victoria Centre has not yet reopened and a heavy police presence has remained on the scene. Traffic and public transport has been diverted and is facing delays.
Nottinghamshire Police have released a statement on their website stating: “Part of the Victoria Centre in Nottingham city centre has been evacuated following a report of a suspicious package being found inside”.
The statement advises anyone currently in the City Centre to “follow advice from officers at the scene”.
Further information will follow as the story develops.
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Image credit: Ben Lewis (Impact). Embedded images and video: Sarah Murnaghan
