POLICE have confirmed that no explosives were found at a property at the centre of a bomb alert - but a homemade taser was among items discovered during searches.

Northumbria Police evacuated homes in South Shields yesterday morning and called the bomb squad after officers entered an address on Lake Avenue at 4am to investigate reports that a number of suspicious items had been seen inside.

Specialists from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team carried out a controlled explosion. 

Residents spoke of how they woke to find police at the door ordering them to 'get out straight away'. Some left without any personal belongings, including money.

A room at a local leisure centre was made available for those evacuated.

Last night police confirmed that residents had been allowed home, and a man had been arrested in connection with the incident.

He remains in custody and enquiries are continuing.

Superintendent Brad Howe said: "First of all I would like to thank local residents for their patience during this incident, I know there has been a lot of disruption for them and I would like to assure them we did not do this without giving a great deal of thought to the impact this would have on them.

"We have been working closely with our colleagues at South Tyneside Council to try and keep this disruption minimal and to make sure there was support for residents who were directly affected by this.

"While initially it appeared there may have been suspected improvised explosive devices in the premises this has proved not to be the case and devices of this nature were not found.

"Other items were seized which included what is believed to be a homemade taser.”