A bomb scare in Finchley Road this morning was triggered by a suspect package sent to the headquarters of a Jewish charity.

Police have carried out a controlled explosion after staff at the charity Mitzvah Day, which has offices at the JW3 Jewish community centre in Finchley Road, raised the alarm.

A heavy package sent to the charity’s offices this morning prompted staff to call police at about 10.15am.

Following the controlled explosion the package was found to contain the charity’s own t-shirts and promotional material, a police officer on scene said.

Raymond Simonson, chief executive of JW3, said: “Police partially closed Finchley Road in connection with a suspicious package received at the offices of the Mitzvah Day charity and subsequently conducted a controlled explosion.

“Thankfully, it is now shown to have been a false alarm and the cordon has been lifted.”

Mitzvah Day is the Jewish community’s global annual day of social action and the UK charity was founded by Hampstead resident Laura Marks.

She thanked police and the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish organisation that concentrates on security in the community, for their support dealing with the suspect package.

“We’d like to thank the police and CST hugely for their vigilance and to say that we’re lucky to live in a society where we’re so well looked after,” she said.

“We’d like thank them enormously for taking care of us.

“It’s sad that we live in a world where things can cause such suspicion, but we’re also lucky to live in a world where organisations like the CST and police take such prompt action.”

Finchley Road has now reopened to traffic.