Shoppers had to be temporarily evacuated from atria Watford this morning with security guards seen turning people away.

The shopping centre confirmed that the area which homes WHSmith was closed off for roughly 10 minutes due to a false alarm.

A woman from Bushey said she was walking to Boots at about 12.15pm when she saw tape sectioning off part of the lower mall.

She said: “As I got closer, I saw security turning people away.

“I asked the guard if I could go to Boots for my optician appointment and he said I couldn’t because the fire alarm was sounding off.”

The woman said she later saw a large group of people standing outside Primark in Queen’s Street while the evacuation took place.  

An atria Watford spokesperson apologised for the disruption and said the centre is now back open as usual.

It comes after a power cut forced several shopping centre stores to close for three hours on Monday, February 13.