Comedian Peter Kay was ushered off stage mid-performance and the audience was evacuated after a \u201cpotential suspicious bag\u201d was found.<\/p>\n
Police said a 19-year-old man is being held after the show at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham was halted on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said that two members of staff came onto the stage about 45 minutes into the performance, whispered into Kay\u2019s ear, and then escorted him off.<\/p>\n
Steve Aspinall, who was at the gig with his wife, told the Press Association: \u201cTwo guys came on, one with a mic and headphones, one guy whispered to Peter Kay and then he and Peter Kay shot off down the side.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the audience was told to look for security guards and listen out for any announcements.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I thought it was part of the show at first,\u201d Aspinall, who lives in Bideford, Devon, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a strange atmosphere, eerie, just confused really (about) what was happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was alright and everyone was calm and left quite quickly with no panic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miranda Richardson, 52, a pub landlady from Northampton, said: \u201cIt was very swift.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne minute (Peter Kay\u2019s) on stage and the gig is great, then two of the event team walk on stage straight to him, quick word and he\u2019s ushered off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff tells us due to unforeseen circumstances we all have to evacuate the arena straight away.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff helped get people out and it was calm and swift. We heard very quickly someone had claimed a bag had been left somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo messing, it was just all out.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Midlands Police said the venue is being searched.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) said: \u201cUtilita Arena Birmingham has been evacuated as a precaution on the advice of West Midlands Police after a potential suspicious bag was found nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety and security of our customers and colleagues is our highest priority. We can confirm everyone was safely evacuated and that the venue is secure.<\/p>\n
\u201cTicket holders will be contacted directly in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comedian Peter Kay was ushered off stage mid-performance and the audience was evacuated after a \u201cpotential suspicious bag\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-428457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}