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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent

Firearms officers raid hotel after Harry Potter fan’s wand mistaken for a knife

A Harry Potter fan holds a wand and a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone at a 20th anniversary event in Uruguay.
A Harry Potter fan holds a wand and a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone at a 20th anniversary event in Uruguay. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Firearms officers swarmed on a hotel in Leicestershire at the weekend after a report of a man carrying a large knife – which turned out to be a Harry Potter wand.

The mixup happened when police were called to a large hotel in Enderby near Leicester after receiving a call about a person inside carrying a knife near the lifts.

A number of officers attended the scene only to discover the offending weapon was in fact a wand being carried by a Harry Potter fan.

In an update on the local police Facebook page on Sunday, an officer said: “I attended a large hotel in Enderby this morning with a number of firearms officers, following a report of a male inside near the lifts carrying ‘a large knife’.

“Following enquiries we quickly established that it was a Harry Potter fan with a wand. Thankfully no harm was caused to any resident and there was no sign of ‘Voldermort’ [sic].”

The incident prompted amusement and a swathe of Harry Potter puns in response.

“Are you being sirius?” read one comment under the post, while another said: “Expecto Patrol-man!”

A garden centre down the road from Enderby, which is just south-west of Leicester city centre, is offering customers a Harry Potter-themed afternoon tea, although it is unclear whether the fan had been in the area to visit that when the incident took place.

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