IPSWICH: Customers had to abandon their shopping this afternoon after a fire alarm went off in the town centre.

Bosses at Tower Ramparts said they had not been a fire, but evacuated the shopping centre at around 12.50pm as a precaution.

The siren was later found to have been activated when dust was blown on to a smoke alarm at Martin’s newsagents, based inside the complex.

Centre manager Mike Sorhaindo said: “We had an activation in one of our units. We couldn’t take any chances so we evacuated the premises.

“It was caused as a result of an air conditioning device which blew some dust onto a smoke alarm. The fire brigade arrived to investigate and our customers returned at about 1.20pm.”