By Ellie-Louise Style

A suspicious suitcase caused the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells to be evacuated earlier today.

At 9:20am this morning a black and grey suitcase was discovered just outside of Barclay’s bank in the centre of town.

Police then cleared roughly 150 people from the area, which included an evacuation of the Royal Victoria shopping centre and Calverley Road, and the busy town was then left at standstill for just over 5 and a half hours.

The Ministry of Defence were called to the scene to investigate the package at 1:30pm with the bomb disposal team.

The residents of the town were then told to prepare themselves as they were going to carry out a controlled explosion, shortly after two loud bangs were heard.

A Kent police spokesman said: “As a precaution officers closed the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre and also Calverley precinct. A number of local roads were also closed as a cordon was put in place.”

“A Ministry of Defence explosive ordnance disposal team later carried out a controlled explosion and the contents were found to be harmless.”