A BOMB scare at Barrow's shipyard has been confirmed to be a hoax.

Staff at the shipyard were evacuated after reports of a bomb on a submarine.

An employee said staff in the Devonshire Dock Hall complex had been told this morning there had been an anonymous tip of a bomb on one of the Astute class vessels at BAE.

It is thought around 1,700 employees were evacuated.

A BAE Systems spokesman: "Following an extensive sweep of the Devonshire Dock Complex (DDC), including the four Astute class submarines in build, nothing suspicious was found.

"The situation is being managed in accordance with normal procedures and we expect to be able to close the incident shortly.

"Our first priority is always the safety of employees, the site and local residents so in accordance with our emergency procedures, we made the decision to release personnel from the DDC earlier today.

"This is a well-exercised procedure and was purely precautionary.

"Working with the emergency services, we are now satisfied there is no immediate safety risk and employees due to come on to site to start any shift after 4pm are asked to report to site as normal.

"Further information is available on the employee hotline: 0808 126 1908."

Both police and paramedics were called to the yard around 9.20am today. No one was injured.

No further detail has been released about the source of the hoax.

Anyone with information about those responsible should call police on 101.