A suspicious device that caused Manchester United's Premier League match with AFC Bournemouth to be postponed Sunday was a dummy left by a training company, police confirmed.
Old Trafford was partially evacuated around 20 minutes before the scheduled kickoff and the game was abandoned shortly afterward as Greater Manchester Police bomb-disposal teams were deployed to deal with an "incredibly lifelike explosive device" in the north-west quadrant of the stadium.
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A controlled explosion was later carried out, with GMP confirming that the device — reportedly strapped to a gas pipe — was "not viable."
Players and officials from both clubs were escorted from the stadium. They are scheduled to reconvene Tuesday to play out the match.
Inquiries are due to be launched as to how a dummy used in an exercise was allowed to be left behind.
"Following today's controlled explosion, 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 searching dogs," GMP's assistant chief constable John O'Hare said. "Whilst this item did not turn out to be a viable explosive, on appearance this device was as real as could be, and the decision to evacuate the stadium was the right thing to do, until we could be sure that people were not at risk.
"I would also like to thank all those involved in the operation today for such a professional response, which includes police officers, stewards, MUFC staff, media representatives and commentators and the Bomb Disposal Team."
All other Premier League matches kicked off as expected.