Brighton’s Grand Hotel Evacuated Due To Anonymous Bomb Threat

The people of Brighton, England, had quite the scare earlier Sunday, September 10. An anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat targeting the highly frequented Grand Hotel, located on the seafront.

As reported by The Guardian, the call turned out to be a hoax, and the building was given the all-clear after bomb technicians secured the area and made absolutely sure that there was no imminent threat. Authorities insist that they are doing everything they can to trace the call and find the person or persons responsible for the scare, but at this time are refusing to give any further detail in regards to exactly what was said during the phone conversation itself.

The London Evening Standard has revealed that the search took approximately five hours, after which time residents were allowed to re-enter the building. Those in attendance at the Trade Union Congress’s annual conference, held at the neighboring Brighton Center, were also forced to evacuate to ensure their safety.

Highway traffic was likewise affected, according to the Independent, with the city’s A259 King’s Road being shut down in both directions due to the incident. Sussex police have confirmed that military involvement has also been put in place, in order to take all possible measures to make sure this threat does not turn out to be a reality.

This recent bomb scare was particularly frightening to the people of Brighton due to a terrorist attack that took place back in October of 1984 when the same location came under attack at the hands of the IRA in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While she herself escaped unharmed, a total of five people died and 31 were injured. One of the deceased was, at the time, a sitting Conservative member of parliament.

The bomb was planted by prominent IRA member Patrick Magee, who planted the device during his three-day-long stay at the hotel, in the month previous to the tragedy occurring. He fitted the bomb underneath the bathtub in his room, placing it on a long-delay timer in order to increase the likelihood that his crime would go undetected and maximum destruction would ensue due to lack of suspicion.

[Featured Image by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images]