Police closed Oxford’s University Parks this morning after a digital treasure hunt sparked an alert.

Officers were called to the parks in Parks Road at 11.15am today to reports of a suspicious package taped to the bottom of a park bench.

Seven officers, including police community support officers, closed off the park while it was investigated.

Insp Paul Beaney said: “It has been confirmed as a geocache.

“We closed the park down for a few minutes while one of our knowledgeable officers examined the item and identified exactly what it was.”

He could not confirm whether the item had been left in place but the park has since  reopened.

Geocaching involves using GPS devices to track down items, usually tokens of minimal value, left by other geocachers.

Once someone finds the geocache, they keep the item and replace it with something else to keep the treasure hunt going.