A BOMB scare was brought to an end by a 90-year-old resident who pointed out that the suspect device was actually an air monitoring unit.

Redbridge Council was alerted to the suspicious object by workmen when they found it sitting in a maintenance cupboard in Oak Hall Court in Wanstead.

Scores of residents were ordered out of their homes and waited for two-and-a-half hours as police and fire officers searched the buildings, before Joan Brown, who has lived there since the estate was built, stepped forward.

Mrs Brown, 90, said: “We were evacuated and someone said something suspect had been found in one of the maintenance cupboards. Well, I have been here since the flats were opened in 1948 and I knew immediately what it was. It’s a device that was put in to monitor air quality when this was a clean air zone in the 1950s. It was just stuck there and forgotten about.

“I went up and told the police sergeant and everything went calm again.”

Despite the false alert, other residents were angry that it had taken so long for the authorities to act.

Mazibur Rahman, 55, said: “I was coming back home after shopping and the police stopped me and said there was a bomb scare, so I had to wait outside with my kids.

“I have seen this device and know the workmen reported it to the council days ago. If it had been dangerous they should have reacted sooner than they did.”

George Bowdidge, 67, said: “We got the warning to evacuate and my wife put the cats in their baskets as we would never leave them here.”

“It beggars belief that a suspect device was reported days ago and they could not have come out sooner. They just totally failed to follow through on the original complaint.

“But people across the road were serving us tea and coffee outside as we waited. It was the old East End spirit of people coming together in hard times.”

A spokesman for Redbridge police said: “A council representative and London Fire Brigade confirmed it was an air quality monitoring kit installed in 1960. Police described the equipment as six to eight glass bottles containing clear liquid and rubber hoses attached which were attached to a small pump.”

A spokeswoman for Redbridge Council denied that staff had delayed acting on suspicions, adding: "The equipment was discovered by contractors following a routine estate inspection on Monday, January 17.

Redbridge Homes sought advice from the police on Tuesday as the equipment couldn’t be identified.

The police followed a number of lines of enquiry to identify the equipment and as a precaution emergency procedures were followed until the equipment was identified at approximately 4pm.