A bomb scare was sparked in York when a workman found two suspicious items at the council tip in Foss Islands Road.

Army officers from the Royal Logistic Corps were called in by police and a stretch of the road was cordoned off for two hours last night while they investigated the two suspect bombs.

Sergeant Dave Williams, of York Police, said a cassette recorder and a video recorder had been found in one of the skips. They contained a substance which looked like Semtex, the plastic explosive.

Investigators from the Royal Logistic Corps examined the devices and decided they were not dangerous and scenes of crime officers arrived to photograph them before they were dismantled.

A stretch of Foss Islands Road, from the end of Navigation Road to the Layerthorpe junction, and the cycle path along the Foss, were sealed off from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

Updated: 15:39 Tuesday, May 15, 2001