There was a bit of excitement on Friday in Carlisle city centre when a major shopping centre had to be evacuated.

Basically during my lunch hour I headed out to the local record shop to buy the 40th anniversary edition of Red Roses For Me by The Pogues but I was thwarted in my mission by emergency sirens which were sounding upon my arrival. Oh boy don’t those anniversary editions make you feel old when you bought the album first time around eh?

It turned out that The Lanes Shopping Centre was being evacuated but no explanation was forthcoming about why.

I did alert my news desk about what was going on and I took a few photos on my work phone. Having said that the results were fairly disappointing as there was an element of blur so in hindsight I would probably have used my iPhone or my Sony cameras if I had them with me. Having said that I always say that the best camera is the one you have with you at the time.

I managed to file the following which was included in the online blog but by then the rest of the team were on the case, as the remit of my role as a local democracy reporter does not cover general news, having said that I was happy to provide a few lines:

DOZENS of shoppers had to be evacuated from a Carlisle shopping centre today (FRI) as emergency seirens sounded throughout the building.  

At least one fire crew arrived as the puzzled shoppers crowded around all of the entrances to The Lanes Shopping Centre.

At least one fire crew arrived as the puzzled shoppers crowded around all of the entrances to The Lanes Shopping Centre.

In the end I was quoted as being on the scene and I did get a message from a BBC Look North reporter as well as a call from a reporter from BBC Radio Cumbria asking what was going on but in the end it turned out it was all a false alarm. But that is how these things turn out eh?

Related article: Carlisle shoppers were evacuated from The Lanes due to false alarm