GLASGOW city centre returned to normal today after a bomb alert at a busy restaurant.

Streets were cordoned off and premises evacuated after a suspect device was discovered in Pizza Hut in Sauchiehall Street.

However, restrictions were lifted once the area had been given the all clear yesterday evening and city centre diversions were lifted by rush hour.

Emergency services were quickly on the scene at the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Renfield Street shortly before noon. The city was brought to a standstill for hours while investigations were carried out.

Bomb disposal experts were drafted in and it is believed a six-inch piece of pipe with an electrical device attached was removed.

A spokesman for Pizza Hut said: "We temporarily closed our Renfield Street branch after alerting police to a suspicious package found in the toilets."

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Times, hundreds of shoppers looked on in horror from behind cordons after being evacuated from one of the city's busiest shopping streets.

Shop staff out on their lunch breaks were left stranded behind the cordon and unable to return to work.

Some passengers stuck in buses gave up hope of reaching their destination and got off.

Liz Thomas was on her way to meet friends at Braehead Shopping Centre.

She said: "I was on a bus that got stuck the traffic was backed up so far."

Frank Thomas, 36, said: "I was on my way to the bank when the policed showed up. Shoppers were being moved away but no one would say why we had to move