At approximately 11:00 am today, the 3rd of April, police discovered a suspicious package on Broad Street. The area was immediately cordoned off, and the police ordered an evacuation of the surrounding buildings, including the famous Blackwell’s bookshop.
The incident caused confusion among pedestrians and shop owners. Although most areas were evacuated, the public within Blackwell’s were instructed to stay indoors. One member of security suggested that the is no time frame as to when the restrictions will end, something that worried the public speakers that have gathered there for the Oxford Literary Festival.
The evacuation lasted for approximately an hour before the police determined that the ‘device’ they had been informed of was not a threat. It comes the morning after Jordan Peterson’s talk at the Sheldonian Theatre, a venue on the same street.
Interestingly, the suspicious package might actually turn out to be a joint that my partner and I had placed in a waterproof pot and forgotten about after listening to one of the talks at the Oxford Literary Festival. Sniffer dogs were reportedly a part of the search, so after visiting the scene I will be able to figure out if our joint was something that was discovered. Stay tuned.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">At Broad Street, reporting for <a href="https://twitter.com/TheOxfordMail?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheOxfordMail</a> <a href="https://t.co/hGy0D2Fs2t">pic.twitter.com/hGy0D2Fs2t</a></p>— Ed Halford (@EdHalford1) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdHalford1/status/1642836906936356864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
