Manchester United match evacuated over suspicious package

Police ordered Manchester United to abandon their final Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth on Sunday after a suspicious package was discovered at Old Trafford.

The game “has been abandoned, fans are leaving the ground. Please avoid the area if possible,” Manchester police said on their Twitter account.

GMP are working closely with @ManUtd to investigate a suspicious item at Old Trafford. There has been a controlled evacuation.

— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) May 15, 2016

Tens of thousands of fans were ordered from the 75,600 capacity stadium when the alert was sounded about about 20 minutes before the scheduled kickoff.

United confirms that a suspicious package had been found and sent out a tweet saying the match had been “abandoned.”

Announcements were made on the public address system that security staff should invoke “operation red code.”

Due to the discovery of a suspect package in the NW Quadrant of the ground, the match has been abandoned today on police advice. #mufc

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 15, 2016

— AFP