The Latest: Mayor demands inquiry after security ‘fiasco’

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The Latest on the evacuation of Manchester United’s stadium after a suspicious package was found (all times local):

11.55 p.m.

Greater Manchester’s mayor has described the security blunder at Manchester United as a ”fiasco” and is calling for an inquiry into the incident.

Tony Lloyd, who is also the area’s police and crime commissioner, says ”it is outrageous this situation arose and a full inquiry is required to urgently find out how this happened, why it happened and who will be held accountable.”

Lloyd says ”the fiasco caused massive inconvenience to supporters who had come from far and wide to watch the match, wasted the time of huge numbers of police officers and the army’s bomb squad, and unnecessarily put people in danger.”

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10.40 p.m.

Police say the device that was found at Manchester United’s stadium before the match against Bournemouth in the Premier League was a training device that was left inside Old Trafford following an earlier security exercise.

Greater Manchester Police said the device was found in the toilets in the northwest corner of one of the stands by United staff. Explosive experts were called in to assess the item, which appeared to be an ”incredibly realistic-looking explosive device.”

The stadium was evacuated, the match was postponed, and bomb disposal experts dismantled the device.

John O’Hare, assistant chief constable from Greater Manchester Police, said ”we have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs.”

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9:15 p.m.

The Premier League says that Manchester United will play Bournemouth on Tuesday night, two days after the match was postponed because of a fake bomb found at Old Trafford stadium.

The league made the announcement in a statement issued late Sunday, hours after police evacuated Old Trafford on the final day of the Premier League season and dismantled the device.

United has to win the match by a 19-goal margin or more to have any hope of finishing in fourth place and above crosstown rival Manchester City for a Champions League spot. The match will kick off at 8 p.m. Tuesday (1900 GMT).

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6:25 p.m.

Police say that a device found at Manchester United’s stadium before a Premier League match ”wasn’t viable.”

Greater Manchester Police also said in a tweet that a full search of Old Trafford was ongoing. In another tweet a few minutes earlier, the police force had described the item found as an ”explosive device” that was ”incredibly …

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