Stores on a Watford retail park were evacuated following a hoax bomb threat this afternoon.

A caller contacted police at 2.05pm to say a device had been planted in B&Q on the Watford Arches retail park in Lower High Street and would be detonated within the hour.

B&Q and Mothercare were both evacuated by police while army bomb disposal experts searched the store, no device was discovered and officers left at around 3.15pm.

An investigation into the source of the hoax has now been launched.