Police locked down an area outside Meine Estate near Balmedie as officers carried out precautionary checks on a vehicle.
19:00, 29 Jul 2025Updated 19:26, 29 Jul 2025
Police officers are currently on the scene in Balmedie(Image: Daily Record)
A vehicle which sparked a major security scare outside Donald Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire has been searched by the bomb squad.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal units were called in to search a vehicle that had been pulled by police during precautionary checks around 3pm this afternoon.
Nearby residents were evacuated from their homes as officers placed a cordon around the zone hours before President Trump was due to depart the resort.
Police Scotland initially reported that they had removed the cordon and that no criminality was found in an earlier statement.
They then earlier this evening confirmed that bomb squad EOD military crews asked to carry out further checks on the vehicle forcing the security cordon to be reinstated.
However around 6.30pm tonight officers said the EOD checks had been completed and the security incident was a false alarm.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “As the cordon was being removed, military colleagues from EOD requested to carry out further checks on the vehicle.
“These remain ongoing and the decision has been taken to maintain the cordon at this time.”
A later update shared by the Force, added: “We have been advised by military colleagues in EOD that further searches of the vehicle have now been completed.
“There is no risk and cordons are in the process of being lifted. It was a false alarm with good intent.”
Earlier the Record spoke to one local resident who said she has been “abruptly” ordered to leave her cottage in the village of Balmedie, despite still being dressed in pyjamas.
Stephanie McAllister, 38, said she was surprised by the instruction and lives yards from Donald Trump’s golf club.
The mum-of-one was left standing outside Old Aberdeen Road in Balmedie while the US President prepared to depart Scotland and fly back to Washington DC.
We told how part of the road was closed, with golf course staff and security officers pushed back beyond road barriers during the incident.
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Trump has since left the estate as he was spotted boarding Marine One shortly after the incident unfolded outside the main gates to his Aberdeenshire resort.
Earlier today Donald Trump and John Swinney bonded over breakfast earlier as the First Minister urged the US President to reconsider his imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on whisky.
Scotland’s national drink makes up a quarter of the UK’s food and drink exports but distillers are already losing £4 million a week as a result of the Republican leader economic agenda.
Trump and Swinney met in person for the first time on Monday evening when they sat next to each other for a beef dinner at the President’s golf resort in Aberdeenshire.
Scottish Government sources told the Record the two leaders were in conversation for more than an hour and “discussed at length critical issues such as whisky”.
