A "bomb" that forced a supermarket to close is believed to be a battery from a mobility scooter.

A government bomb disposal squad arrived at a Sainsburys in Haywards Heath yesterday after reports of an unexploded device in the store.

Calls were made to the emergency services by staff at the premises in Bannister Way at lunchtime yesterday.

But by 4.30pm Sussex Police confirmed the suspicious device, rumoured to be a Semtex bomb, was not an explosive and had been removed from the store.

The area surrounding the supermarket was cordoned off for five hours while Ministry of Defence bomb experts arrived to deal with the item.