GERMAN police evacuated hundreds of people from their homes in a western town in the early hours of this morning after they discovered a stolen car they feared could contain a bomb outside RAF barracks.

The car was spotted outside the barracks in the North-Rhine Westphalian town of Niederkruechten.

The car, with British number plates, was registered as stolen on March 24. The alarm was raised by a dog trained by the British military to detect explosives.

Police said they had evacuated between 300 and 400 people from a 200-yard radius around the car.

An underground gas pipe running under the car had been cut off for safety.