An effigy of Alex Salmond was apparently blown up in Lewes last night – despite police saying it had been reassured no models of the Scottish First Minister would be burned.

Sussex Police is looking into a number of complaints about the portrayal of former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.

Superintendent Laurence Taylor said: "We acknowledge that concerns have been raised and are trying to establish whether or not any crime may have been committed."

The Scottish nationalist leader was the subject of two effigies at Lewes bonfire celebrations.

But while one was withdrawn following an outcry, the second was the centrepiece of a huge fireworks display before being unceremoniously detonated.

Images show a caricatured Mr Salmond with fireworks jetting from his chest at the Commercial Square Bonfire Society display.

At the end of the spectacular show the effigy, apparently filled with explosives, was detonated, creating an impact several hundred metres away.

Onlooker Jack Harris, 30, of Lewes, said: “You could see the fireworks coming out of him.

“It would have been stuffed with gunpowder and blown up – that’s what the big explosion at the end would have been.”

Meanwhile on Twitter people posted pictures depicting the effigy with fireworks erupting from it.

Michael Story tweeted: “Newspapers are wrong: Alex Salmond effigy was lit with fireworks then detonated in Lewes.”

Another Twitter user Lu Williams added: “Despite complaints Lewes burnt the c**p outtta Alex Salmond anyway.”

 

A backlash begun earlier in the afternoon after East Sussex County Council posted an image of an Alex Salmond effigy with Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, created by Waterlook Bonfire Society.

Waterloo Bonfire Society later said it had withdrawn the tableau “in light of responses received”.

A statement said: “We can assure that we have no wish or intention to offend and have never found ourselves in a position where we have done so in the past. To clarify we do not burn tableaux. They are incorporated into our firework display.

Sussex Police added: “For those enquiring we have been advised that there won't be any burning of the Alex Salmond effigies this evening in Lewes.”

But Commercial Square Bonfire Society, which refused to comment this morning, apparently went ahead with their celebrations including Mr Salmond.