AN EVACUATION alarm went off in a shopping centre in Newport city centre earlier.

Around 12pm today an announcement came on at Friars Walk shopping centre, urging shoppers to evacuate the building.

The announcement said: "Attention please, attention.

"A situation has arisen where we need to evacuate the building, please leave by the nearest exit or as guided by a member of staff.

"Thank you."

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Gwent Police have confirmed that it was due to a faulty fire alarm.

Deputy centre manager at Friars Walk, Emma Grimes, said: "We had an engineer working on the fire panel in one of the stores which caused a fault for a couple of minutes and made the VA system go off.

"All is now back to normal."