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Police: Old Trafford 'bomb' was dummy device left over from training exercise

After the match between Manchester United and Bournemouth was abandoned, the culprit was revealed to be a fake bomb from a training exercise.

The abandonment of Manchester United's final match of the season has descended into farce after it was revealed that the device which led to a controlled explosion was a dummy bomb forgotten by a private company after a security training exercise.

“I am grateful to the Manchester United and Bournemouth supporters for their support and assistance today,” assistant chief constable John O'Hare, of the Greater Manchester Police, said.

“Following today’s controlled explosion, we have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs.