A Maltese man has been released on bail after having been accused of causing a bomb scare at Chichester and Emsworth, forcing train services to be delayed, the UK press is reporting. 

Havant train station was evacuated at around 5.30pm on Thursday after reports of a person with a bomb on an arriving train.

Armed officers from Hampshire Constabulary and British Transport Police had stopped the 4.12pm Southampton Central to London Victoria service in Havant after passengers on-board heard a man talking about a bomb. Officers stopped and searched the train, but no devices were found. The man was arrested.

Many rail passengers left the Chichester station and were provided with a  bus   to Portsmouth. Two services had to be cancelled and another was hugely delayed.

The 25-year-old man from Malta, who was in the third coach, was arrested on suspicion of communicating a bomb hoax and for public order offences. He has now been granted bail and is to return to Southampton police station on Saturday, March 24. 

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