Residents on Sherwood Avenue in Poole were evacuated in the early hours after police found a suspicious device inside a vehicle, turning the street into a Sherwood Avenue Poole homes evacuated scene before dawn. Police knocked on doors shortly after 1am on Saturday, October 31, and families were kept out until around 6am.
Richard Morgan, an engineering director who watched the operation, described the response as "like something out of a movie." He saw technicians deploy a remote-controlled bomb disposal robot with headlights, then use a water disruptor on the vehicle before a sudden car fire broke out after the disruptor was fired again.
John Banham on Sherwood Avenue
John Banham said police woke him by knocking on his door late at night. "Automatically you think, what is it?" he said. "Oh my god. Just oh my god."
Officers established a cordon and forced families into the freezing night air. Police then allowed chilly residents to shelter inside parked cars until the road was declared safe around 6am.
Petrol smell after 6am
By morning, a strong smell of petrol lingered in the street and the burnt-out vehicle was still on the road. Many neighbours slept through the disruption and only learned about it later through missing police notifications or Ring doorbell alerts, with one resident messaging, "Is this real?"
Residents also said the vehicle was known to police before the midnight incident, but the reason it led to an evacuation was not explained. That leaves the same question hanging over Sherwood Avenue in Poole: what was inside the vehicle, and why did it trigger such a wide response overnight?
