Central London: another bus bomb alert

There's another bomb alert in central London this afternoon. London fire service has confirmed a small fire on a bus, and the discovery of a suspect bag. Two major roads, quite close to our offices here in Farringdon road, have been closed; Gray's Inn Road and Euston Road, which is one of the main roads running out west.

A police source has told PA: "There have been no bangs. We're investigating what it is." And there's a suggestion, of course, that we shouldn't rush to conclusions. London buses have been known to go up in smoke because of mechanical problems.

We've dispatched a reporter to check out what's happening, and will bring you more as it happens.

1538 Update: Our news story, updating as new information comes in, is now up here.

1540 Update: Looks like it might have been a broken bus, rather than a bomb, thankfully. All this worry is perhaps a measure of how jumpy London is at the moment. A mechanical failure, worthy of little more than an irritated tut a month ago, now sees large areas of the city closed down.

blogs.guardian.co.uk