A CITY centre lockdown was sparked after a man found old mining explosives during a garage clear-out.

The explosives were delivered to Durham City police station, in New Elvet, on Monday afternoon, causing several hours of disruption as bomb experts dealt with the situation.

The Northern Echo:

Durham Police has confirmed that the high yield mining explosives were found by a man during a clear-out of a garage in the Shincliffe area.

Police say they do not know exactly how old the explosives were, but believe they had been there for some time.

They were handed in at the front desk at around 2.50pm on Monday, causing major disruption, with an 100m area around the station evacuated.

A team of bomb disposal experts had to be called from Catterick to safely deal with the explosives, which were detonated in a controlled explosion at Maiden Castle sports centre, on the outskirts of Durham.

Police are warning anyone who finds potentially dangerous items to leave them where they are and call police.

Chief Inspector Stephen Ball said: “If you find any potentially dangerous items that you would like to hand over to police, please leave them where they are and contact 999.

“We will attend to make sure that the items are properly and safely disposed of.”