Dozens of people stand and chat among themselves or stand wondering what is happening as a police tape stretches across the road to prevent them going any further.

These scenes were captured by a Watford Observer photographer when a bomb scare brought late Christmas shopping to a temporary halt in Watford High Street in 1983.

The security alert happened in Marks & Spencer on December 22 and police officers and firefighters are pictured discussing the situation behind the cordon as curious onlookers wait to be allowed back into the shops.

Watford Observer: Some people talk to each other while others stand and waitSome people talk to each other while others stand and wait (Image: Watford Observer)

These images from our archive also serve as a reminder of some of the shops that were in High Street at that time.

Watford Observer: The area covered by the police tape is stretched onto the pavementThe area covered by the police tape is stretched onto the pavement (Image: Watford Observer)

As well as Marks & Spencer and British Home Stores, that side of the street was also home to H. Samuel jewellers, Freeman Hardy and Willis and Trueform shoe shops, and Littlewoods.

Watford Observer: Two women look along the mostly deserted High Street to the cordon at the other end of the roadTwo women look along the mostly deserted High Street to the cordon at the other end of the road (Image: Watford Observer)

Cross to the other side of High Street, and you could have visited another shoe shop, in Dolcis, next door was Our Price records and further down the road at the corner with King Street stood Woolworths.

Watford Observer: The police and fire service discuss the situationThe police and fire service discuss the situation (Image: Watford Observer)