'Suspicious item' at Walsall mosque treated as hate crime
Police investigating a "suspicious item" found outside a mosque have said it is being treated as a hate crime.
About 150 people were evacuated from homes around the mosque in Rutter Street, Walsall, after bomb disposal experts were called to the scene.
Supt Keith Fraser, from the West Midlands force, said detectives were pursuing a "number of lines of inquiry". The item has been made safe but police said they were still trying to work out what it was.
Zia ul-Haq, from the Aisha mosque, said the discovery was "totally out of the blue" and they did not know who could be behind it.
He said: "We found a suspicious item which we did not consider to be serious but as a precaution we thought that we would call the police and bring this to their attention."
23 Jun 2013
- From the section UK