Spooks prop delayed trains in 'bomb' alert

A prop from television spy drama Spooks delayed trains for an hour after a passer-by mistook it for a bomb.

Police officers were called to a secure yard near Deptford train station, in south east London, to reports of an oil drum with wires sticking out of it.

They called train operators and asked them to suspend services on a nearby line while officers investigated.

But when they called the owners of the property they discovered the mystery oil drum had been put together for the hit television show.

Some scenes from Spooks, which features Richard Armitage as swashbuckling MI5 hunk Lucas North, are filmed at a studio a short distance away in Bermondsey.

A spokeswoman for production company Kudos Film and Television said the oil drum was glimpsed from a little-used back alley.

She said: "A prop used on Spooks was stored securely in the production's private courtyard.

"A member of the public looked into the yard and, on seeing the prop, decided to alert the emergency services as a precaution.

"As soon as the Spooks production team were contacted, they confirmed the package was just a prop and not dangerous."

A spokesman for Southeastern train company said services were suspended for about an hour until midnight on July 1.

He said: "There were delays to about a dozen trains. Everything was back up and running by around midnight."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force did not comment on false bomb alerts.