Part of the UK parliament was evacuated after an iPad belonging to a minister’s aide sparked a bomb scare.
Streets surrounding the buildings in central London were cordoned off on Monday morning after a suspicious package was found in Portcullis House, which contains MPs’ offices.
Bridge Street, Westminster Bridge and Victoria Embankment to Northumberland Avenue were closed to traffic and MPs were forced to leave the building.
Following an investigation, the Metropolitan police declared the package in question was not dangerous. A spokesman said: “It has been declared non-suspicious – everything has been stood down.”
Conservative MP Nick Boles, minister of state jointly for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education, later revealed that the scare had been caused by a tablet computer belonging to his newly recruited apprentice.
He tweeted: “An exciting start to my apprentice’s first day at parliament: the whole of Portcullis House evacuated cos [sic] of security scare over his iPad!”
Photographs posted on social media showed streets outside parliament, usually busy with commuters and tourists, deserted except for police cars and officers.
