A suspect package left outside Stepney Green Underground station was detonated in a controlled explosion today.

East London Advertiser: Bomnb alert... Stepney Green Underground station [photo: Google]Bomnb alert... Stepney Green Underground station [photo: Google] (Image: Google)

The busy A11 Mile End Road in east London and the beginning of Globe Road had to be cordoned off while a specialist police explosive team was called in to make the device safe.

The alarm was raised at 11.30am by a passer-by who spotted the package left on the pavement by the station entrance and called the emergency services.

“We carried out a controlled explosion as a precaution,” a Scotland Yard spokesman told the East London Advertiser.

“The incident was dealt with as a hoax or a false alarm. The streets around the station were cordoned off and there was no danger to the public.”

Transport for London was alerted and the station closed as a precaution. But services continued on the District and Hammersmith & City lines without stopping at Stepney Green.

The streets were cordoned off for more than an hour until the device was detonated. The streets and station were then reopened.

The station has historic security concerns, after the IRA planted a bomb on a District Line train at Stepney Green in 1976 which exploded when it reached West Ham, but caused minimal damage and no injuries.