Two universities have been evacuated after reports of suspicious packages being found within their grounds.

On Wednesday morning, at 11.40am, the University of Glasgow announced it had evacuated some of its buildings after a suspicious package was found in its mailroom.

Hours later, at 2.20pm, Essex Police said the University of Essex had been evacuated after a separate report of a suspicious package.

In a statement released on Twitter, the Scottish school said: "Under advice from Police Scotland, a number of buildings on the main University campus have been evacuated as a precautionary measure after a suspicious package was found in the University’s mailroom. Police are dealing with the matter and we will provide regular updates.

"At present, the following buildings have been closed: Boyd Orr Building, Mailroom, the OTC (Officer Training Corps) building next to it, Wolfson Medical Building, Bower Building, Isabella Elder Building, James McCune Smith Learning Hub site and the Joseph Black Building.

"As a precautionary measure, police have advised the evacuated buildings should remain closed for the remainder of the day. As such, classes in these buildings have been cancelled for the rest of the day."

On Wednesday afternoon, an Essex Police spokeswoman said: "As a precaution we have put a 100m cordon in place and we have evacuated a section of the university and nearby buildings. We await the arrival of the Ministry of Defences’ EOD team."

It is not clear at this stage whether or not the two incidents are linked.

In a separate incident, the flagship Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Gogarburn in Edinburgh was evacuated as police dealt with a suspicious package.

It was reported this package was also discovered in the mailroom, but it later transpired this was a false alarm.