MAGISTRATES and defendants ran for cover last week as police moved in to investigate a suspect vehicle parked outside the courthouse.

Hearings ground to a halt as visitors and staff at Staines Magistrates' Court flooded its car park to escape the threat of a suspect device on Knowle Green after an anonymous tip-off to Spelthorne Borough Council.

Hundreds of council workers, leisure centre staff, health centre visitors and pensioners at the Fairways day care centre also rushed for cover as police moved in to the green to examine and disarm the suspicious bundle of wires and a battery after the man's alarm call at 10.20am on Wednesday.

Although officers advised building managers along the busy strip to warn staff to stay away from windows, many took the decision to evacuate and about 150 people from the council's west wing and business centre hid behind its main building until the coast was clear.

As police set up an hour-long road block to stop traffic accessing the road, a sergeant and two other officers slowly approached the blue camper van to get a closer look at the device.

However, according to a police source, as they closed in officers spotted cobwebs hanging from the vehicle and after further investigation discovered the van had been abandoned about a month earlier and the wires and battery in the back were harmless.

Council officers were then instructed to remove the vehicle before any more panic calls reignited the alert.

A police spokeswoman said: "We cannot comment on the decision to evacuate the court. We advised people to stay away from windows.

"Officers judged the threat and saw that nobody had been in the vehicle for a number of weeks. We have so far been unable to find a current owner but the council was advised to remove it to avoid further calls."

A spokesman for Staines Magistrates' Court denied there had been any risk to residents as no prisoners had been involved in the evacuation.

He said the court's cells had fortunately been empty at the time of the alert.

"We were told to keep people away from the windows and as the building has a lot of glass we felt it would be safer to move people behind the building. The cells were empty at the time."

By.Abi Dornan