A BOMB scare at Swindon’s courthouses brought parts of the town centre to a standstill yesterday.

Both the magistrates’ and crown court were evacuated shortly after 2pm as a precaution after police received a phone call with information regarding a possible explosive.

Dozens of cases were adjourned or postponed as judges, barristers, defendants and court staff were told to leave and the Army Bomb Disposal Team was put on standby.

An exclusion zone of 100m was set up around the two buildings with drivers being stopped from travelling down Gordon Road, Islington Street and Princes Street from Whale-bridge to Euclid Street.

Motorists parked in the car park outside the court, which was inside the cordon, were unable to move their cars for nearly three hours.

Twenty specialist police officers and four sniffer dogs carried out searches but no suspicious packages were found.

Chief Insp Keith Ewart said: “The call will now be investigated to work out the source and to try and find out the reasons behind it. There has also been a call to the court at Winchester today.

“We appreciate this will have caused inconvenience to some members of the public, including motorists, but we must ensure a thorough and proper search is done for safety reasons.”

People were allowed back into court shortly before 5pm.

One arrest was made during the incident after a man ignored the police cordon and tried to carry on walking down Princes Street.