London chaos: Tower Bridge sealed off as police race to scene due to 'incident'
TOWER BRIDGE in London was shut down by police today while they responded to an "incident".
There were no immediate details on the incident but police erected cordons across the bridge to prevent access. One witness tweeted: "Police just closed off Tower Bridge as I was crossing it. No idea what happened. I didn't notice anything."
Another tweeted: "Emergency vehicles are having to use the cycle lane on Upper and Lower Thames Street to get to an incident on Tower Bridge."
Another onlooker suggested police were responded to reports of a suspect package.
City of London Police later announced the bridge had been re-opened but warned of heavy traffic in the area as a result of the closure.
A spokesman said: "Tower Bridge has now been fully reopened. Thank you for your patience."
The emergency closure came two weeks after Tower Bridge was locked down by City of London Police for nearly an hour as officers dealt with a man who climbed the iconic structure.
Police in the capital remain on high alert after the UK's terrorism threat level was upgraded from "substantial" to "severe".
The move means security chiefs believe that an attack is highly likely but there is no specific intelligence of an imminent incident.
The decision to upgade the threat level to severe came after a spate of terror attacks in Europe.
Four people were killed when a gunman went on the rampage in Austrian capital Vienna earlier this month.
The shootings followed a knife attack which left three people dead near a church in the southern French city of Nice and the barbaric murder of a teacher outside his school on the outskirts of Paris.