‘Find a classroom and shelter’: Elvet Riverside shut down as ‘explosive devices’ handed into Police Station

The cordon has now been removed, lectures are continuing, and a ‘controlled detonation’ has taken place


Police cordoned off all roads in a 100-metre radius of Durham Constabulary’s Headquarters between around 15.55 and 16.45 this afternoon as ‘a number of historical explosive devices’ were handed in to police.

One student left inside Elvet Riverside said he was told to ‘find a classroom and shelter’.

The explosive devices have now been ‘safely removed from the area and destroyed in a controlled detonation at Maiden Castle Sports Ground’, according to a statement from Durham Constabulary.
The statement continued: ‘The cordon and all road closures have now been lifted, and it is safe to return to the area’.

This bomb disposal lorry was spotted in Elvet Crescent

Students inside were given mixed messages. Some opted to ‘play games’, while others told The Tab they disobeyed police instructions and simply left the building ‘out of a back corridor’.

Students found ways to keep themselves occupied

One student told The Tab: ‘It was a bit chaotic at first, got told to leave lecture hall, but ushered back inside, then told to sit in class for a bit. It was really nice actually: a lady came around offering a drumstick’.

‘Everyone just sort of accepted that we just had to wait, there wasn’t really any panic’.

Molly Gould, a second-year Classics student at Van Mildert, lives in Elvet Crescent. She told The Tab: ‘We went to Tesco to buy supplies (in the form of a Tesco meal deal) as some people said we could be out for hours’.
‘Once we headed to my friends house we were saw that Elvet Crescent was back open. A whole £3 wasted! We can’t deal with these costs on a student budget!’
The cordon on New Elvet has been lifted, with only one ambulance remaining on the scene. No injuries have been reported.