| Not much in the way of prior notice to local residents, just to businesses. They are idiots for not rescheduling or at least getting the word out better. |
BBC chiefs have apologised for staging a massive explosion in a crowded city centre. Shoppers feared a terrorist bombing when the blast rocked streets during filming for Dr Who spin-off series Torchwood.
Police issued an alert just two hours before the blast was due in Cardiff city centre - because of the latest terrorist attacks in Glasgow and London. The BBC staged the explosion next to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff yards from the busy shopping streets, restaurants and bars in the Welsh capital.
Passers-by were horrified by the blast in an old courtroom building which sent a huge pall of smoke over the city centre. Father-of-three Pete Humphries, 47, said: "The BBC must be mad doing this now. It was loud and frightening.
"It is incredibly insensitive. My blood ran cold when I heard that bang."
Mum-of-two Amanda Thomas, 34, said: "I jumped out of my skin. It was a huge bang - and I thought of terrorism straight away. You'd think the police might have stopped the BBC doing it after what's happened over the last few days with terrorism.
"They've targeted London and Glasgow so any major city might be next."
Her mum Brenda Protheroe, 59, said: "It was quite a bang and everyone looked shocked. It sound like a clap of thunder but deeper. We've had a lot of storms recently but we knew it wasn't thunder. It sounded exactly like a bomb. You could tell people were worried all around us.
"What an earth were the BBC thinking of doing this now - couldn't it have waited a couple of weeks?"
The BBC issued their own warning on local radio and online just an hour before the blast was due - too late for many of the frightened shoppers. It was due to have two blasts two hours apart but cut it to one after the security alert.
Police sent uniformed officers to calm people passing and the BBC has their own private security teams on standby. Inspector Andy Walbeoff, of South Wales Police, said: "We decided to issue the warning to the public because of the heightened state of alert following the other incidents.
"It was short notice because of the change of events but we realised some people would be frightened "We didn't want people running away thinking they were real bombs going off.
"We watched the explosion from our control rooms on our cameras and it seemed to make a mighty bang."
The blasts rocked a former county court building, now empty, in the city's Westgate Street. It was turned into a "Telecommunications and Mobile Switching Centre" for the filming. Huge cannons sent papers into the street, a pall of smoke went out and stunt people were seen rolling around in agony.
The filming was for new Torchwood series starring John Barrowman due to be screened later this year. A BBC production team member said: "The filming was planned many weeks ago before the recent terrorist incidents.
"We had informed neighbouring businesses but could not tell everyone who might be in the city centre. We apologise if anyone was frightened."
| As opposed to apologizing for being so stupid. |