BAE Systems evacuates workers at nuclear submarine site after bomb scare

Hundreds of workers at a BAE Systems nuclear submarines shipyard in northern England were evacuated this afternoon after a warning about a bomb on one of the ships.

The defence giant, which runs the yard at Barrow-in-Furness, said it had been closed and staff evacuated. Local newspaper the Mail reported that staff had been evacuated. Ambulances and police were on the scene.

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A spokesperson told City PM the incident had since been “stood down”. The Office of Nuclear Regulation said there had been no nuclear incident.

“We have been made aware of an incident at the BAE Systems site in Barrow. The incident is not related to nuclear safety,” a spokesman for the Office of Nuclear Regulation said.

“We are liaising with BAE Systems’ site security and will continue to monitor the situation,” the spokesman added.

BAE, the Ministry of Defence’s biggest industry supplier, builds the next generation of nuclear-armed submarines which are set to replace the current group. The Vanguard class vessels carry the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent.

BAE Systems said: “Following an extensive sweep of the Devonshire Dock Complex (DDC), including the four Astute class submarines in build, nothing suspicious was found. The situation is being managed in accordance with normal procedures and we expect to be able to close the incident shortly.

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“Our first priority is always the safety of employees, the site and local residents so in accordance with our emergency procedures, we made the decision to release personnel from the DDC earlier today. This is a well-exercised procedure and was purely precautionary.

“Working with the emergency services, we are now satisfied there is no immediate safety risk and employees due to come on to site to start any shift after 4pm are asked to report to site as normal.”