Skip to main content

BREAKING: Police investigate shots fired at Oxford Circus Tube station

 

Armed police are responding to reports of shots being fired at London's Oxford Circus Tube station. The Met said it was responding as if the incident was terrorist related and urged people on nearby Oxford Street to take cover inside buildings. "Oxford Circus Station is closed while we investigate a customer incident," Transport for London said.

The Met said armed and unarmed police were at the scene. "At this stage police have not located any casualties," the force said in a statement. 
Nearby Bond Street Tube station had also been closed, to prevent overcrowding.

In a statement on Twitter, British Transport Police said: "We continue to respond to an incident at Oxford Circus. "The station is currently closed, please avoid the area at this time. Officers are on scene." 

UPDATE: 'No suspects, no shots, no casualties' say police

Police have found no evidence of shots having been fired, no suspects and no serious casualties after panic on Oxford Street late this afternoon. 

People ran and screamed from Britain's most famous shopping street on one of its busiest days of the year as teams of armed officers moved in to close down Oxford Circus tube station. 

The panic was started after gunfire was reportedly heard in or around the Underground station around 5pm today - but police have yet to find any source of gunshots. 

A large section of Oxford Street was locked down at the height of the scare, but much of the area has now been reopened. After people ran through neighbouring streets and locked themselves in basements, police played down the incident which appeared to have sparked the panic. 

A police statement released at 5:40pm stated: 'To date police have not located any trace of any suspects, evidence of shots fired or causalities. Officers continue to work with colleagues from British Transport Police in the area of Oxford Circus. 

'Updates will be provided as soon as we have them. 

'If you are in building stay in a building, if you are on the street in Oxford Street leave the area. Officers are continuing to search the area.' 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Billionaire businessman denies funding Obasanjo’s coalition

Billionaire businessman and founder of Aiteo Group, Mr. Benedict Peters, has denied social media reports that he is funding the new coalition reportedly being headed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Peters said this in a statement on Friday night. He said, “For the record, I wish to state, categorically and unequivocally, that I am not a financier of the said organisation or any socio-political partisan association or political party in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. “As an international businessman of repute, I have deliberately stayed away from politics preferring, instead, to focus and give my all to the development of my business interests across the African continent. “Corporate Social Responsibility contributions has seen the Aiteo Group, which I lead, provide investment support in medicine and medical research dedicated to seeking cures for several ailments which affect the African continent as well as investment in sport and sport as a panacea for the develop...

It's time to 'embrace an android' says Labour's deputy leader

Worried that a robot will one day take your job? Don't fear says a senior politician who is urging people to "embrace an android". If machines can take over routine tasks, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson believes, it will liberate people to focus on areas generating more wealth. If properly regulated, he says the growth of automation could create as many jobs as it will eliminate" "I suppose what I am really saying is - robots can set us free." A report earlier this year suggested 30% of British jobs could be threatened by automation by 2030, compared with 38% in the US and 21% in Japan, with manufacturing and retail at the greatest risk. Corbyn: Let workers control robots Will a robot take your job? But Mr Watson, who is also Labour's culture spokesman, said he was much more optimistic that technological change could be a force for economic and social good. Speaking at the launch of a new report into the future of work in the 21st Century, he ...

World’s first sex shop shuts down, declares bankruptcy

Germany’s pioneering sex shop chain, Beate Uhse, said Friday that it has filed for insolvency, as the empire started by a female World War II pilot fails to rise to the challenge posed by erotic e-commerce. In its hey day, the group sold lingerie, erotic films and sex products. Uhse began her foray into erotic business in 1946, when she put together a pamphlet called “Document X” describing how women could avoid pregnancy. In post-war Germany, her advice was in high demand and she sold thousands of copies of her brochures. The mail order business thrived and the former fighter pilot and member of the Luftwaffe opened in 1962 her first shop in the German town of Flensburg. Named Institute of Marital Hygiene, the store selling lingerie and contraceptives became the world’s first sex shop. Her activities often ran counter to the morality of post-war Germany and she was called before the courts in thousands of legal suits filed against her. Yet she remained frank and unashamed about...