Shropshire Star

Early morning explosion mystery in Shrewsbury solved - it was a backfiring digger

It was a loud bang that many people all over Shrewsbury heard yesterday morning - but no one really knew what it was. And many will be surprised to hear it was a backfiring digger.

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But now Caterpillar in Shrewsbury has taken responsibility for the noise, which was rumoured to be a possible sonic boom from RAF aircraft, although RAF Shawbury quickly ruled this out.

Caterpillar Shrewsbury Ltd, based on Lancaster Road has said the mystery explosion was indeed one of their diggers.

Product Manager Matt Bulley said: "A Challenger engine backfired on one of our test cells at approximately 9am this morning.

"The backfire happened in a controlled environment and posed no health and safety risk to anyone on site.

"This was an exceptional incident which occurred as part of our natural activity on site.

"We apologise for any inconvenience or alarm caused to local residents following this incident."

Police said they had received a number of calls about the noise, but they were not treating it as an incident.

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