The Premier League match between Manchester United and Bournemouth was abandoned after a “incredibly lifelike” device was found shortly before kick-off.
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The device was accidentally left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs, police said.
Ed Woodward, United’s vice-chairman, said the club will “investigate the incident to inform future actions and decisions”. “Please avoid the area if possible”, Manchester police said on their Twitter account.
The alert at Old Trafford came just days after GMP held a mock terrorist operation at Manchester’s Trafford Centre which saw a fake suicide bomber shouting “Allahu Akbar” immediately before detonating a bomb. No explosives were found.
Police were dealing with a suspicious package found at the ground, the broadcasters said.
Two of the Old Trafford stands were evacuated about 20 minutes before the scheduled kickoff at 1400 GMT.
It is understood that both sets of players were kept in the dressing rooms for around 40 minutes before being taken to a suite, being looked after by security and hospitality staff. Some fans booed as a stadium announcer instructed them to exit the building.
“We don’t make these decisions lightly and we have done this today to ensure the safety of all those attending”, Assistant Chief Constable John O’Hare said in a statement.
TV footage showed fire engines arriving at the stadium. Sniffer dogs were also seen inside the stadium.
About 3,000 Bournemouth fans are estimated to have made the trip to Old Trafford for the game.
The rest of the Premier League games being played on Sunday, the final day of the season, went ahead as scheduled.
United was vying with Manchester City to finish in fourth place in the Premier League and qualify for the Champions League.
Later Sunday, Manchester City drew 1-1 with Swansea to secure a place in next season’s Champions League competition. The match has been abandoned, no official reason has yet been given by Manchester United.
Earlier, the Premier League apologized for the inconvenience that the postponement of the game caused to fans.
“It is always the last resort to abandon one of our fixtures”.
They expanded on that assessment Sunday evening.
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The Provisional IRA has observed a cease-fire since July 1997 and renounced violence in 2005, but several rival factions continue to plot attacks in the British territory of Northern Ireland. That means an attack was viewed as a “strong possibility”.
