General Discussion

Just came back from Exeter and have been stuck in traffic along Exeter Road in Dawlish; to be told by a policeman stopping cars that there has been reports of a breifcase with a bomb in left on Dawlish train station. The police are waiting for the bomb disposial unit from Plymouth to arrive.

Also the town is closed off and was told that we couldn't go any further then the Caholic Church. He said the town would be open later on this evening.

That might also explain the ambulance and two ambulance cars with lights flashing I saw heading towards Dawlish along the Teignmouth Road at about 5pm today.

It was a typewriter in a case that someone had left on the platform

It was a black bag left outside of the Natwest bank. The police did a very loud controlled explosion and out popped a typewriter. Everyone came down town to watch. All very strange.

I was evacuated out of our building, and made to wait it out at the railway carpark. Whatever it turns out to be, hoax or not, the Police, I thought did a wonderfully calm job. Although I am surprised at the lack of loud speakers to help evacuate and control. But alls well, that ends well :-)

I know it all turned out ok but my first thought is why would anyone leave a bomb outside a bank on a Sunday afternnoon in a quiet part of town? My second question is why would anyone leave a typewriter outside a bank on a Sunday afternoon.........stranger!

What I find even stranger is that a large crowd of people gathered round to watch the bag be detonated- What if it had turned out to be an explosive devise?

I'm puzzled. My wife, daughter & I drove into Dawlish to see police tape on a section out of the one way system. We wondered what was happening. We parked up in a car park, strolled down the street of shops, popped in a couple of charity shops before walking onto Dawlish railway station platform! We stood there for a while then couldn't walk back the way we came becuase of more tape. If the "typewriter" was on the platform how comes we did that? Surely that would of been the very first closed area, no the last? We then had a nightmare trying to get back to Dawlish Warren but did it eventually without being stationary for ages. I admire the effort to protect the public but I kinda knew it wouldn't be a real bomb. Surely that has to be better ways to determine if it is or not before everybody's day is ruined. ?

@Tracy 2nd question - they say the pen is mightier than the sword.

Thankfully not a bomb - have there been any theories yet about why it was there? April fools hoax?

@TheWhoSeeker the photo i saw showed it outside the natwest bank not at the railway station.

@neilh lol.