RESIDENTS have told of their fear after their street was evacuated when a suspicious device was found in Clarksfield.

A bomb disposal squad was called to a property in Hillside Avenue at around 11.30am today and spent the afternoon assessing the situation before the device was removed.

Police went door to door evacuating residents at around lunchtime.

A cordon was in place for several hours before people were allowed back in their homes at around 4pm.

Taxi driver Shaheed Amir's parents live next door but one to the house where the device was found.

"They were very worried being so close," said Shaheed, who lives further down the street.

"The police came and asked us to leave so I took my family and my parents to my brother's house nearby.

"It was a scary situation. We weren't sure what was going on until we saw the bomb squad.

"I think it's a privately rented house where the device was found but not sure if anyone is living there at the moment."

Saima Bibi, aged 34, was allowed to stay inside her home as she has a young baby and wasn't keen to leave.

"Officers came knocking on the door to ask us to leave but I explained I had a young baby and he wasn't well so they said we could stay if I stayed in the back room with the children and they would inform us it it became more severe and we had to leave. I phoned my husband and he said to stay calm and it would be ok.

"I was really frightened. At first I thought there had been a murder but then I saw the bomb disposal vehicle.

"Most people co-operated and left in their cars. It's normally very busy on here but it was like a ghost town.

"We have cameras and I watched what was going on from the living room. There were a lot of police circling the area."

Martha Pedley, aged 37, left her home with her husband and parked on a nearby street while the investigation was taken placing.

"We were asking what is going on and we were told they had found a suspicious device in one of the houses," said Martha.

"We were very worried when we saw the bomb squad because they thought it must be serious for them to come out and all these police. They were talking about using one of the local schools for somewhere for people to go.

"They said if they were going to detonate it, it would be contained inside the house. That made us worried.

"We are going away for the weekend and we were wondering if we'd have a house to come back to!"

"It is scary and it gives me mixed feelings. I mean it makes you realise you really don't know what your neighbour is up to."

A police spokeswoman said: "At around 11.20am on Thursday, March 29.

"Police were called to Hillside Avenue in Oldham to reports that a suspicious device had been found.

"As a precautionary measure, some nearby properties were evacuated whilst bomb disposal experts carried out an assessment.

"The device has now been removed from the property and existing cordons have been lifted."