Frightened families were roused from their beds by bomb disposal experts as a late night drama unfolded at a Basildon restaurant.
Concerned staff at Pizza Hut in the town centre called in police when they spotted an abandoned briefcase near the entrance of the busy eatery at around 10pm yesterday.
Police officers decided to call in reinforcements from Colchester Garrison and a specialist squad, which deals with explosives, was dispatched due to fears the package could be a terrorist bomb.
They arrived at around midnight and immediately ordered evacuation of part of the Brooke House tower block.
Families were woken and had to leave their beds while staff from the restaurant joined them behind a cordon.
At around 1am, a controlled explosion was carried out and the briefcase was found to be empty.
Window frames in the restaurant were damaged during the detonation and Pizza Hut staff were forced to stay on hand until around 4am while glaziers arrived to deal with the problem.
A police spokesman said today: "We would like to remind people not to leave bags and cases unattended.
"It can cause chaos and by the time the glazier came out this incident had been ongoing for several hours.
"We also had to evacuate those families from Brooke House which caused a massive amount of disruption - all because of one person's carelessness."
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