AN 18-year-old woman has been cautioned for wasting police time after an investigation into an alleged “serious sexual assault” in Hereford last week.

Crime scene teams sealed off Eign Gate underpass and its immediate surrounds for several hours over Friday before police confirmed that the attack had not happened.

Detective Inspector Martyn Barnes, of Herefordshire CID, told the Hereford Times that investigators were “satisfied” that the circumstances reported to the police were not true.

The alleged assault was said to have occurred in the underpass at around 2.30am last Friday.

Investigators were on the scene until late that afternoon.