A car rented by Bedfordshire Police was the subject of a bomb threat after it was parked in central London ahead of an event attended by the Israeli ambassador.
The vehicle had five of its windows broken by a team of specialists from the Metropolitan Police before officers realized it was being operated by another force.
Bedfordshire Police are believed to have rented the black Nissan Qashqai but did not leave a police diary in the window to show that the vehicle was safe.
The car was parked outside Westminster Central Hall on Tuesday morning before Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was due to attend an event. Other guests were the Shadow Labor Ministers Wes Streeting and David Lammy, as well as the Labor peer Lord Levy.
A Met spokesman confirmed officials smashed windows on the vehicle, but denied that a control explosion had occurred.
He said, “The car was a rental car [and] was not part of the Metropolitan Police Service. ”He said officials believe it was operated by Bedfordshire Police.
He added: “Police became aware of a suspicious vehicle on Matthew Parker Street, SW1, shortly after 12 noon on Tuesday, November 16. Specialized officers were present and the vehicle was examined. “
A Bedfordshire police spokesman said police used the car as part of an operation carried out primarily in London. The car rental company involved was unable to prove that the Bedfordshire Police had rented the vehicle in good time to prevent the windows from being smashed.
The bomb threat came the day after the terrorist threat was raised from “major” to “severe” after a taxi exploded outside a women’s hospital in Birmingham.
The new level means that an attack is classified as “very likely”.
Tuesday’s incident isn’t the first bomb threat caused by a mistake by the police.
In 2017, a bomb squad outside a police station in Workington, Cumbria, carried out a controlled explosion on a car parked there by a colleague. The officers were not aware that the car had been parked outside the station by an officer who had helped the sick owner.
In 2014, part of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ football stadium had to be evacuated after police mistakenly left a fake explosive device in a boardroom during an earlier training exercise.
