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Hysteria - Armed police guard the bus with the deadly electronic cigarette on board.
Armed police swooped on a coach and shut down a motorway after a passenger spotted a man craftily smoking a fake cigarette into a bag and mistook it for a terror threat.

After closing the M6 toll road for more than four hours, police admitted the alert - which was treated like a major chemical incident - was sparked by a 'health improvement aid for smokers'.

The passenger had been inhaling the e-cigarette device, which emits water vapour and is legal to smoke on board a vehicle, but covered it with a bag so those around were not able to see what he was doing.

Electronic cigarettes simulate smoking and the flavour of inhaled tobacco. They are often used by people trying to give up.

Armed officers, troops, firefighters and bomb disposal experts were all called to the scene near Lichfield.

A decontamination unit was set up and passengers were searched and held in a makeshift pen on the carriageway, but police found no crime had been committed.

The enormity of the operation meant that although the cause of the alert was quickly established, police had to confirm the story before turning to the task of packing away all the equipment and clearing the road.

With the Olympic Games, considered an attractive target for potential terrorists, starting later this month, police have urged the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity.

A police spokesman said: 'The information received concerned a report of vapour escaping from a bag which on investigation turned out to be a health improvement aid for smokers.
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Idiots: British security authorities actually set up a full decontamination unit to deal with an electronic cigarette.
'It's important to state that no criminal offence has been committed and no passenger or any other member of the public is being treated as a suspect.'

Hours after emergency services set up decontamination tents on the tarmac and cordoned off the scene they admitted no one was in any danger at all.

Police received a report at about 8.20am from 'a genuinely concerned member of the public' who saw vapour coming out of the bag as the coach was near the M6 toll plaza at Weeford, near Lichfield, the force spokeswoman said.

The coach, which was operated by Megabus, was travelling south from Preston to London and had 48 people booked to travel on it when one person sparked the alert.

John Lamb, spokesman for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said the cost of the scare would 'easily run into hundreds of thousands of pounds'.

'Before the M6 toll road was there it used to be said that the cost to business was £2million a day so the cost of this alert must run into hundreds of thousands.

'For such a ridiculous thing to cause so much disruption is unforgivable for individuals and businesses but we live in times when we have to expect these sorts of things.'

Motorists reported at least ten police vans surrounding the coach as 'large numbers' of armed police stormed onto the vehicle in.

The police spokesman added: 'Given the credibility of the information we received, we responded swiftly and proportionately. We can now confirm that, whilst this was a genuine security alert, the significant concerns reported to us were unfounded.

'The coach has now been moved, the M6 Toll has now been reopened the passengers have been moved onto another bus and their property returned.'

After the alert was sparked at 8.20am this morning, police admitted at 1pm that the whole thing was a false alarm.

A spokeswoman for Megabus, which is operated by Stagecoach, said 48 passengers were booked on the service and all were safe and well.

'We are assisting police with their inquiries into an allegation made against a passenger who was travelling on the 05.10 Preston to London service,' she said.
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Hostages: bus passengers were held in a 'secured area' for interrogation. With incompetent and hysterical authorities like this, who needs terrorists?
'There were 48 people booked to travel on board the service, which was due to arrive at Victoria coach station in London at 10.55am.

'Police have confirmed that all passengers are safe and well and they have been transferred to a substitute vehicle.

'We are making arrangements to provide onward travel for passengers as soon as we receive clearance from the police.'

Military personnel were at the scene with a truck marked Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal.

Police had been searching the coach passengers one by one.

Eyewitness Nick Jones, who was stopped on the motorway for more than an hour and a half, told BBC News that police warned him to stay in his car, keep his windows closed and not to use air conditioning.

'I was beginning to feel a little uneasy,' he said. 'I was beginning to look around for an escape route.'