Liverpool city centre shuts down over bomb scare as police negotiate with man in office block

Police were called to Tithebarn Street at around 10:30am after a fire alarm was pulled

Police arrive on the scene in Tithebarn Street, Liverpool (Stephen Ullathorne/Twitter)

A bomb scare shut down Liverpool city centre after a man entered a solicitor's office carrying a “suspicious package”.

Merseyside police confirmed a man had been arrested following the incident in Tithebarn Street, Liverpool at 10:30am on Friday morning and had been taken to a nearby police station for questioning.

The police were called to scene after staff at the office on the fifth floor became concerned about the man who was behaving suspiciously.

Video footage taken by the Liverpool Echo shows a balding, white man being led out of the building at gunpoint.

One staff member at the firm, MSB Solicitors, pulled the fire alarm and the building was evacuated.

A woman who was working in the building told the newspaper: "We have a routine fire alarm test on Friday mornings so when it went off, everyone ignored it at first and carried on with what they were doing.

"Obviously when it continued ringing, we realised it was something out of the ordinary and had to evacuate the building. We were told we had to leave all our stuff and might not be allowed back in today."

The surrounding streets were cordoned off “as a safety precaution” and bomb disposal van was put in place as police attempted to contact the man.

Other buildings in the area - including a nursery and the local Crown Prosecution Service office - were not been evacuated.

MSB later tweeted to apologise to its customers for the disruption and confirmed a bomb scare had led to the evacuation of the fifth floor.

According to the Liverpool Echo, the man - described as a “white middle aged man” - had entered the offices to complain about an insurance claim.