LONDON (Reuters) - A "performance artist" sparked a major security alert in London on Wednesday when she left five packages, one with nails sticking out of it, across a busy area of the city during the morning rush-hour, police said.
The woman, who has not been named, told officers she had strategically planted the "devices" around the Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith Grove areas of west London, a major traffic and transport hub crammed with commuters on their way to work.
Police, fearing a possible repeat of last July's suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 people on the capital's transport system, rushed bomb squad officers to the scene and threw a cordon around the area.
About an hour later they scaled down the operation, which caused chaos for thousands of travellers, after the woman went to police and claimed responsibility.
"Whilst officers were responding to the incidents a 36-year-old woman attended a west London police station," a police spokeswoman said.
"The woman, who is from the Shepherd's Bush area and who described herself as an artist, was then arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and taken into custody where she remains."
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Further proof, if it were needed, that modern art ain't all that :p