Horse racing falls victim to bomb hoax in England

Horse racing falls victim to bomb hoax in England

UTTOXETER, England (AFP): A packed horse race meeting in central England was abandoned on Saturday after a hoax call sparked a massive security alert.

Police said around 7,000 people were forced to evacuate the course at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire when a man purporting to be from an Irish paramilitary group claimed that a bomb had been planted in the stand.

It was unclear whether the caller had claimed to be from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) or from the Real IRA, a separate group which opposes the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Police sniffer dogs and about 40 officers checked the site as other emergency services waited on standby.

But racecourse managing director Rod Street later said the search had proved fruitless and no device had been found.

He said police had called off their search and the racecourse had been given the all-clear.

The alert was announced as seven runners were taking part in the 3:10 p.m local time stanleybet.co.uk Handicap Chase, the fifth of six scheduled races.

It is not the first time that bomb scares have put paid to race meetings. One forced the 1997 Grand National to be canceled, though the race was eventually run two days later.

Racing at Kempton on Boxing Day 1999 was abandoned after the King George VI Chase following a bomb threat.

And the meeting at Ascot on October 7 last year was abandoned after just one race because of a coded telephone warning.

Saturday's warning came less than a week after the Real IRA, the group responsible for the 1998 Omagh bomb massacre -- which killed 29 people -- released a New Year's message vowing to fight British rule in Northern Ireland at "every level".