British police reopen Bank of England area after vehicle security alert

LONDON - British police reopened an area around the Bank of England to pedestrians on Thursday after calling a security alert because of an abandoned car in the heart of London's financial district.

A dark saloon car abandoned in the centre of Bank Junction, one of the main traffic interchanges of the City of London, prompted police to briefly seal off the area and some office workers were evacuated.

But police said the vehicle was deemed safe and that the area had been reopened to pedestrians, though it was still closed for vehicles. "Vehicle at Bank junction deemed safe," the police said in a statement on social media site Twitter. "Area reopened to pedestrians but remains closed to vehicles at this time." A Reuters reporter at the scene said people who had been evacuated from offices in the area were returning to work.

The Bank of England, which had kept essential operations working through the alert by moving staff to safe parts of the building, said the police had said the incident was now over.