A man who said he left a bag of wires and an iPad outside the American embassy in London as an "art installation" has been cleared of making a hoax bomb threat.

Bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion and the embassy in Nine Elms, southwest London , went into lockdown after a civilian guard raised the alarm about the suspicious items on the morning of 22 November last year.

Daniel Parmenter, 44, denied intending to cause alarm. He maintained that the package was "graffiti art" and claimed that staff at the embassy would recognise it was not an explosive device.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey , the defendant, from Bayswater, west London, was found not guilty of placing an article with intent.

Image: The US embassy in London went into lockdown after the f

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