Incident at St Lawrence Ground – Friday 26th August 2011

Kent Cricket report incident at the St Lawrence Ground after Kent Spitfiresv India match on Friday evening.

Jamie Clifford, Chief Executive Officer of Kent County Cricket Club said this morning:

"Shortly after the conclusion of the game yesterday evening a suspicious package was reported at the St Lawrence Ground.This followed earlier incidents in Canterbury during the day.

As a consequence, the Club accelerated the evacuation of the ground and thank members and supporters for their co-operation with this – it was not possible to explain why we were so keen for people to leave the ground at the time.

The Indian team and management were returned safely, under police escort, to their hotel shortly after. Again we thank them for their patience and support in a difficult situation.

Clearly crowd safety is our top priority and the Club is very pleased with the way our Safety and Stewarding team handled this incident.

Following police assistance, the ground re-opened at 3am this morning and has resumed normal operation.We now look forward to welcoming a big Bank Holiday crowd to the St Lawrence on Monday.”