LONDON (AFP) - British police on Thursday carried out a controlled explosion close to a central London underground station after a car was abandoned nearby, but later said the vehicle was not suspicious.

Baker Street station was evacuated and trains ordered not to stop there after a silver car was left in the middle of the road outside one of the exits.

Social media filled with worried reports of the evacuation as passengers filed out of the station and police cordoned off the road.

"There was an abandoned vehicle in Baker Street. There was a controlled explosion. This is not a criminal investigation," a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service said.

A police Twitter account added that the car had been "deemed non-suspicious" and that roads were being re-opened.

Transport for London said Baker Street had been re-opened.

Authorities are alert to security threats following attacks in Paris last week that killed 129 people, claimed by the Islamic State group.

Earlier on Thursday two men were arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of making a bomb threat, prompting an easyJet flight to be evacuated.