THE bomb scare at Old Trafford almost had devastating effects for Somerset Park residents and Manchester United supporters, Sohalia Akkiah, and her dad, Puvendra, last Sunday. Sohalia, a Grade 3 pupil at La Lucia Junior Primary School travelled to England after winning a Manchester United Supporters’ Club of South Africa competition to watch the Red Devils take on Bournemouth on the last day of the season.

However the bomb scare on the last day of the season, led to the postponement of a game between the sides on Sunday. It was later found the ‘lifelike explosive device’ was actually a fake, left behind in a training exercise.

Two of the Old Trafford stands were evacuated about 20 minutes before the scheduled kickoff of the Premier League game. Police used sniffer dogs to search the area before calling in an army bomb disposal unit which carried out a controlled explosion on the item they described as being ‘an incredibly realistic-looking explosive device’.

“We were inside the stadium when there was a series of staged announcements. Initially, two stands the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and Stretford End were evacuated and gradually the rest of the stadium was asked to leave. Things were quite calm, we were out of the stadium in about seven minutes. When we got outside the stadium, we asked to stand further back and I decided to take Sohalia for something to drink because I didn’t want to scare her.

“I must commend the stewards and the stadium officials, there was no panic or pushing. Things were done in an orderly fashion. At the time not knowing there would be a reprieve for us, we were gutted because we’d flown all the way for this particular game,” Puvendra said.

It was not all doom and gloom for the local residents however, they managed to watch the game which was rescheduled two days later.