• Police were keeping everyone away from council HQ, even hipsters, due to a suspicious bag.

Wednesday’s suspicious package scare—first reported on the Herald’s Facebook page—turned out to be a fizzer after it was discovered the bag contained “ordinary belongings”.

Police media sergeant Gerry Cassidy says police cordoned off the area after someone left a backpack near Freo council HQ. The bomb squad soon showed up and confirmed it was “a non-event”, finding it to be a bag of ordinary belongings that was removed for processing.

When police rolled out the cordon one elderly woman yelled out “how am I going to pay my rates?”