POLICE sealed off a Westbury church on Sunday while army bomb squad experts investigated a suspicious device buzzing in a dustbin.

But when the bin was emptied, it was found to be the failing battery of a discarded smoke alarm.

Church warden Beth Thomas called the police at 11.30am after hearing a buzzing noise coming from a waste bin near the west door.

She said: "It was one of those little things really. I reported it this morning and it was all over by 3pm.

"It was just a strange incident really but these days you don't want to take any chances.

"I just called the police and they called out the bomb squad. The bin was just making this noise and nobody seemed to know what it was.

"Nobody knew whether it was a bomb or not - we just needed to take the necessary precautions.

"It's a storm in a teacup but it was very reassuring that the police told me I had done the right thing.

"The church is a Grade 1 listed building and we don't want anything to happen to it."

The police sealed off All Saints Church while the device in a bin near the west door was investigated.

Bomb squad officers from the Royal Logistics Corps wearing EOD protective suits and using CUTLASS robots were involved.

The robots scattered the contents of the dustbin – only for officers to discover the buzzing was coming from a discarded smoke alarm with a failing battery.