AN abandoned box of UKIP election leaflets sparked a bomb scare in Chippenham when spotted lying under a car.

PCSO Val Wagstaff saw the 1ft-wide box under a white Honda Jazz near the front doors of the Olympiad leisure centre at Monkton Park when she was on the way to work.

It was logged as a suspicious package and a police officer was sent to retrieve it.

Staff at the Olympiad put a message out over the loudspeaker system asking for the owner of the car to come forward, but no one did.

The security scare was brought to a close when the police officer found only a bunch of election leaflets for the UK Independence Party.

Meanwhile, a woman saying she was from the party called the Wiltshire Council offices, shared with Wiltshire Police, to ask if anyone had handed in a box, as she had arrived at the car to find it gone.

Police said a representative of the party who went to claim the leaflets was given a ticking-off by a police inspector.

But the party is denying it had anything to do with the box, suggesting a campaign saboteur may have been to blame.

PCSO Wagstaff said: “I saw it as I was going in to work. The security level is high at the moment and everyone is to be aware of what is around them.

“It is surprising, and disappointing, that those standing for government are not aware of the current security threat levels across the country.

“The box was placed in our property so they could be advised when they came to collect it. The inspector gave her strong words of advice on being aware of the risk in areas such as local government buildings.”

The UKIP prospective parliamentary candidate for the Chippenham constituency is Dr Julia Reid, who did A-levels at John Bentley School in Calne and is a Calne town councillor as well as an MEP for the South West.

A UKIP spokesman said: "We were first made aware of this matter through a phone call we received from the Gazette. The Police are not investigating this matter. The UKIP branch has carried out its own investigation and we can account for our leaflets and we don't know who this person is who went into the police station.

"It is not anyone in our branch as far as we are aware."

UKIP campaign manager Paul Carter said it was not been done by anyone from his party. He said: "Clearly it was a complete waste of police time. We understand that they have to investigate. Maybe it was a hoax."

The current threat level from international terrorism for the UK is assessed as Severe, which means that a terrorist attack is highly likely. It was raised to the second highest of the five levels at the end of August, because of developments in Syria and Iraq.