Olly Murs claims 'terror cover-up' after infamous Selfridges tweet
British Transport Police (BTP) have issued a statement after Olly Murs talked about the infamous Black Friday tweet he sent last year while shopping in Selfridges.
Murs, 33, was heavily criticised and mocked after he tweeted ‘F**k everyone get out of @Selfridges now gun shots!! I’m inside’, before swiftly deleting it after police confirmed there were in fact no gunshots fired.
It was later confirmed that no such terror incident had occurred, after rumours had swirled of a major incident after two men got into a fight on the Oxford Circus underground tube station.
However, Murs insists something bigger happened that day and spoke about it for the first time to the Sun. ‘Something happened that day. Whether it was covered up, I don’t know,’ he suggested.
British Transport Police, who were first to respond to reports of a serious incident, today insisted there was no gunfire.
In a statement, the force said: “This caused a significant level of panic which resulted in numerous calls from members of the public reporting gunfire.
“A full and methodical search of the station and Oxford Street was conducted by our specially trained firearms officers.
“During the search, officers did not find any evidence of gunfire at the station.”
Speaking about how it was reported and the reveal it was a false alarm, Murs had said ‘It’s all a bit murky.’
Murs had described what happened when he and other shoppers were rushed to safety by Selfridges staff: ‘I ran into an office after being told by the staff of Selfridges that someone was there with a gun.
‘Whether they were shooting into the air, or whatever, something happened that day — whether it was covered up, I don’t know.’
The Thinking Of You singer gave details of what happened to him: ‘One minute I’m sitting there and this guy’s saying, “If you press this button you get a massage” — the next I’m getting thrown against a wall.
‘And then there’s people screaming and running towards exits and I’m thinking, “What the f**k?”
“I ran for my life thinking “Someone’s upstairs shooting.” The noise of people screaming, it was terrifying.’
The singer revealed that he and other shoppers huddled in an office to hide from what they presumed was an armed person in the store: ‘I found a door and said “Guys, quick, let’s go into this office.” We ended up going through this back alley and got about 20 people in.’
‘The manager was in there; other senior people. This woman said “Someone was up there shooting, I could see him, in the beauty aisle he had a gun.”
‘This girl was saying “Don’t tell me I’m lying, I saw this guy with my own eyes”. Whether he shot someone or was shooting in the air — well, obviously he didn’t shoot anyone — but someone saw something.’
And, just like at the time of his original November tweet, Piers Morgan pipped up to tell him to be quiet.
‘Stick a cork in it,’ he told Olly. ‘NOBODY. FIRED. A. GUN.’ he said.
Oh stick a cork in it @ollyofficial, for goodness sake…
NOBODY. FIRED. A. GUN. https://t.co/HxCtl7tDAs— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 9, 2018
Despite him claiming there were witnesses who actually saw a person brandishing a gun there were no reports of an assailant with any such weapon, after police revealed it was all thanks to a scuffle that broke out on the Underground.
Yahoo Celebrity has reached out to Olly Murs for further comment.
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