What is with all these supposed suspicious packages being found?

[Greenbeanmcgee]

Euston Station now before that it was the US Embassy and Gatwick. Also Chester and Glasgow. All within a few days of each other.

It’s very odd and concerning.

Or alternatively its good security are doing their job & erring on the side of caution.

Not sure about others but the Glasgow one was basically a false alarm

Exactly. It may also be that there is a heightened alert state at the moment so extra checks are being made and they are being extra vigilent.

However, at my advanced age I have realised that these things seem to go in clusters. For a few weeks, everyone gets whipped into a froth about a series of events demanding to be 'told' or that 'something is done' then it all disappears and we go back to normal. It could be that after the news of Gatwick, people have it at the forefront of their mind and are more likely to report a suspect package. I sincerely hope I'm right this time.

I lived in London during and after the Kings Cross fire. I'd say we got evacuated from trains and stations about 3 times a week for months on end. There were no fires, but because of the tragedy at Kings Cross, people were reporting every wisp of smoke they thought they saw, even if it was dust in a tunnel.

It's nothing new. It's been going on as long as I can remember and I'm nearly 50.

There may have been a specific threat made or specific intelligence about packages. Or it may be coincidence. Or a hoax. Either way, there are SO many more threats- real and hoaxes- that are averted or don’t materialize, every day, than you realize. It’s not worth worrying about until something happens.

Not sure about others but the Glasgow one was basically a false alarm

They all seem to be. At least so far though the embassy was a hoax package so a deliberate attempt to cause fear and disruption. Euston is still ongoing.

It's nothing new. It's been going on as long as I can remember and I'm nearly 50.

I know it’s not new. I’m old enough(40) to remember the IRA days when it was a very real threat and hoax bomb scares were common but I don’t remember quite so many high profile scares in just a few days though perhaps there were.

I was about to say the same thing

Using recognised code words, the PIRA could shut down London with hoax bomb threats

The police didn't know whether they were dealing with a real bomb or not, so had to treat every threat as if it were real

Tubes, buses and all road traffic stopped until the threat was investigated

I remember there being a lot. Also remember how quickly and easily news travels these days due to the Internet and social media. I feel we're much more aware of things these days. In the past a hoax bomb wouldn't have made the headline news. Today it's all over social media in minutes.

In fact my parent worked next to an Army Recruitment centre so you can imagine how often the centre was the recipient of a scare/hoax/attempt

Chester train station was completely closed down yesterday- it caused a lot of travel issues for people and was really worrying. I’m glad the police dealt with it so effectively but I’m also thinking it’s odd there were so many bomb threats so close together in the UK

I remember the IRA ones back in the 80s. I expect it's being done by either Russia or Islamist terrorists now.

Clearly it's related to the Russia- Ukraine escalation. Everyone is on high alert because of Putin's threats.

Add to this, the fact that the online news sites know they will get more clicks because people are nervous/looking for this kind of news. They're incentivised to publish stories about issues that people are already searching for.

99% of the time the 'suspicious package' will turn out to be someone's forgotten suitcase, rucksack, packed lunch or a larger-than-usual item in a waste bin. The occasional one will be a deliberate hoax.

There are cases like this every day but perhaps we just don't ever hear about most of them. What happens when there is one biggish news story is that everybody all over the country starts reporting their own local news, which would have gone totally unnoticed otherwise, and then everybody starts seeing multiple reports and hey presto - threads like this one.

The question isn’t why these incidents have happened (they happen every day in various places). More pertinent is why it is headline news at the moment.

I don’t think it’s really a surprise that it’s of interest to the media when major travel hubs like a Gatwick terminal and Euston Station and buildings of note like the US Embassy are evacuated/cordoned off and bomb squads attend causing huge disruption. Especially during a time of heightened tensions and when several occur around the same time or within days of each other.

I’m a similar age and grew up in London - I do remember being aware of the threat from the IRA as a child but of course back then everyone got their news from the papers and the 9 o’clock TV news so unless you happened to be caught up in something I think everyone was less aware of scares and less significant incidents. These days with 24/7 news on everyone’s phones it’s hard to remain (blissfully) unaware of anything…

syspicioys pavkagrs have always been around. However, the media have decided they’re newsworthy at the moment. Normally we don’t hear about them.

The Russians are sending out stuff at the moment

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07912lxx33o.amp

I guess sensitive locations might be on a higher security level

There’s nothing to suggest there is any link at all. There’s things happen all the time and people are, not necessarily correctly, putting 2 and 2 together.

You don't think that the papers are publishing these stories because of the Russia/Ukraine escalation? Sorry, but I disagree. As other people have said, these alerts happen all the time in London and they usually don't make the papers and news sites.

I’m looking through the BBC news site now and finding reports of hotels, flats, trains etc being evacuated for various reasons from some years ago so no I’m not at all surprised that it’s being reported for high profile locations like Gatwick, Euston and the US Embassy.

@GreenSedan perhaps my post didn’t read well. The media are covering this so extensively precisely because of Russia. However, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence whatsoever at this time it has any relevance at all, nor has there been any suggestion that they are responsible. Irresponsible media has so much to answer for.

When they say they’ve done a controlled explosion, does that mean they just blow up the worrying looking object without looking at it, just in case?

The question isn’t why these incidents have happened (they happen every day in various places). More pertinent is why it is headline news at the moment.

I assume they want to heighten the publics awareness

I agree it’s more the media making a bigger deal. I often find myself having to report abandoned bags on public transport. It’s always been the case. It amazes me how many people just wander past obliviously, but that’s another topic!