The streets of silence

Jul 11 2005 Within Hours Of Broad Street'S Golden Mile Of Pubs And Clubs Being Cleared, Evening Mail Crime Correspondent Mark Cowan Was One Of The First Journalists Allowed Into The Danger Zone To Witness Police Searching For The Source Of The Alert.

IT looked like a scene from the horror movie 28 Days Later.

Three-thirty in the morning and Birmingham's Broad Street should have been full of revellers.

But gazing up along the deserted street from Centenary Square, it looked as if the entire population had simply been erased.

Half emptied beer bottles had been left standing on the kerbside and rubbish billowed past in the early morning breeze.

An eerie silence reigned over Birmingham's major entertainment district.

Where there should have been music and laughter, there was just the periodical squawk of the gulls overhead and the rustling of the police tape used to cordon off the area.

Broad Street had become a ghost town. Instead of the clitter-clatter of high-heeled partygoers, the only footsteps on the Golden Mile were those of the police.

They had been tasked with checking and clearing the street. Not a comforting job one would suspect, when they had helped in the unprecedented evacuation and heard of controlled explosions by the army bomb disposal experts and a possible suspect 'device' found in a Broad Street hotel.

Stretching out across Broad Street, this sweep was the last phase of the operation to re-open the area.

The fluorescent-jacketed officers scoured the street without any hint of fear, emptying out litter bins and peering through hedgerows with torches.

Walking behind them with Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hyde, their diligence was evident.

Peering behind every corner, looking over every wall could have uncovered something very real and very dangerous. After that it was a search of the buildings.

As it was, the suspicious items discovered on earlier sweeps were nothing but bags left unattended by people.

It prompted Mr Hyde to plead: "I would ask people to take care of their property, make sure they know where it is and don't leave it unattended. If they do the chances it might be reported as suspicious and we may well end up have to take action."

Police Federation chairman Paul Tonks praised the bravery of the emergency services.