Man sparks bomb alert with car jump leads

Armed police surrounded an innocent driver after mistaking his gym kit and jump leads for a bomb in the back of his car.

Terrified Michael Jenkins told of the moment Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers, carrying sub machine guns, ordered him out of his office, saying: "Come out of the building with your hands where we can see them ... and bring the keys of your Peugeot 205 with you."



As Ministry of Defence bomb-disposal experts waited on standby at the Harwell nuclear plant in Oxfordshire, computer programmer Michael, of nearby Didcot was led at gun-point to his car. It was only when he pulled out his kit bag and the leads he often needs to jump-start his old car, that the blunder emerged.

Michael, 20, who works for an IT firm based next-door to the nuclear plant, said: "It was like a scene from a movie. There were 20 officers with sub-machine guns and pistols on their belts. There were two dozen police cars. A road-block had been put in place. All I could see were blue lights."