Britain evacuated about 500 oil workers from a North Sea accommodation platform yesterday after reports of a bomb threat but officials said the incident was quickly contained and there was no need to send in a bomb squad. About 14 helicopters and a Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft were sent to the Safe Scandinavia platform in the Britannia oil field, 210 kilometres northeast of the Scottish city of Aberdeen, following a security alert, officials said.

A police spokesman said the incident had been "very quickly contained from a police point of view." Nobody had been arrested, she said. "It is understood the incident was sparked by comments made by a woman on the installation," said a spokesman for the Kinloss Royal Air Force base in Scotland, which had aircraft involved in the operation.

The Ministry of Defence in London was preparing to send a bomb disposal team but a spokesman said later the bomb squad had been stood down. "I think everybody is safe," a ministry spokesman said.