A BOMB scare that closed Harrow Town Centre was caused by a lunchbox with webbing wrapped around it and a book about helicopters.

Dozens of people were evacuated after the package, strapped together with a belt, was found on a chair in the Jobcentre Plus, in Clarendon Road, at around 11.30am.

Officers could not see through the container to see what was inside and it was treated as suspicious, with specialist bomb squad officers called in to deal with.

Inspector Dave Burgum, in charge of the command centre for Harrow Police, said: “The interesting thing for me was there was a webbing belt around it, there was a book on the front of it with a picture of a Chinook helicopter.

“The location was important, which was on a chair in the job centre. The bloke left rather quickly and no one recognised him.

“It was about 100 metres away from a highly busy bus station, backing on to a highly busy tube station and on top of St George's Shopping Centre.

“I'd do it again. At the end of the day the security of Harrow residents must be paramount.”

Queens House and Kings House were both evacuated, Harrow Bus Station was closed and access to the St George's Centre was restricted.

Loud sirens echoes through the streets as officers arrived on the scene and the Met Police bomb squad eventually ruled the package safe and it was removed.