A little over 48 hours before the 2022 Commonwealth Games were to be formally declared open, a fire alarm caused by a reported damage to a system by some unidentified miscreants, caused a near-panic situation at Birmingham’s Central Station, a major entry point into the Games city.

It was business as usual within an hour, but there were creases on many foreheads. Around noon, the public address system announced it was an emergency and that all passengers in the station must evacuate immediately. Trains just arriving into the station were stopped outside and passengers had to stay inside their trains for as long as 30-40 minutes. An officer just outside the station said that it was a false alarm as the alarm handle had been snapped.