A former Tyrone GAA player who shot dead his father had been harbouring a secret need to kill either of his parents, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Sean Hackett shot his father Aloysius in the head in the driveway of their Augher home on 4 January 2013.
He was convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
A consultant psychiatrist who assessed Hackett told judges he suffers from one of the purest forms of delusional disorder she has ever encountered.
Describing the case as unlike any other in Northern Ireland, Dr Carine Minne claimed the 20-year-old's mental illness now requires expert medical attention.
She said: "He's not just a homicide risk while he remains untreated, but also a suicide risk."
Hackett is challenging a minimum 10 year prison term imposed for killing his father.
At his trial it was set out how he had suffered depression in the preceding months, triggered by a split from his girlfriend.
Defence lawyers are now appealing the sentence by arguing that a hospital order should be considered as an alternative.
Hackett's mother Eilish, who he tried to strangle just months before shooting his father, sat in the public gallery during Tuesday's hearing.
His barrister argued that his client was mentally ill at the time of the shooting and remains so now.
Up to five psychiatrists back the view that Hackett was in a delusional state of mind when he carried out the killing.
One of those experts called to give fresh evidence was Dr Minne, who is based at the high security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire.
She identified a series of factors contributing to Hackett's mental health deteriorating in the months leading up to the shooting.
As well as breaking up with a girlfriend, the psychiatrist pointed to the death of a grandparent and the blow to his self-esteem when he failed to be picked for a football team.
By autumn 2012, he had developed a belief that killing either of his parents would solve his problems, she claimed.
"He kept that secret to himself, and this delusion kept recurring over the coming weeks," Dr Minne told the court.
Hackett first lured his mother into the family garage in a bid to strangle her, only to come to his senses and stop when she struggled and screamed.
Dr Minne said: "To quote him, he said 'I just knew I had to do it'."
He was taken to see his GP after that episode but was said to have insisted nothing was wrong as part of a "minimisation" of his illness.
Following the attempted strangulation Hackett's thinking was said to have remained the same.
"The idea of needing to kill one of his parents persisted in his mind, but unbeknown to his family," Dr Minne told the court.
Hours before the shooting he nearly killed his mother before stopping at the last minute, it was claimed.
After firing the first shot Hackett, in his delusional state, felt he had to shoot again to ensure his father was dead, the court heard.
Dr Minne said Hackett stood over his father in a calm state of disbelief immediately after pulling the trigger.
"He felt as if he could be dreaming and wasn't sure if he was really there or not really there," she continued.
"He decided to walk around the house to see if the scene would still be there.
"At that moment he was in a disassociated state, where you're not really fully aware of being present in reality, and you feel as if you're in a dream and you're going to snap out of it. Except he did not snap out of it."
She said that Hackett has still not fully understood that he killed his father.
"This case, of all the cases I have seen in Broadmoor in the last 25 years, is one of the purest forms of delusional disorder I have come across," she told the judges.
According to her assessment any treatment in a psychiatric regime could take between five and 10 years.
She added: "I'm so sorry Mr Hackett is not currently getting the treatment he needs."
Under cross-examination a Crown barrister said that Hackett had been capable of making decisions and exercising self-control in preparing and planning the shooting.
Dr Minne responded that by that stage there was no longer a sane part of his mind.
However, Mr Murphy insisted Hackett's mental functioning enabled him to fire the gun, hide the weapon in a car boot and claim at first that a burglar may have carried out the shooting.
"It wasn't dream-like when doing all these acts. They were well-directed," the barrister contended.
Following submissions the three judges, reserved judgment in the appeal.


An initiative aimed at matching the specific skills of people with autism with the creative industries is to be launched later.

Specialisterne Northern Ireland plans to link people with high functioning autism with employers.
More than 50 digital content and film production companies will be attending.
Young people and adults on the autistic spectrum from across Northern Ireland and university staff are to take part.
The audience at the Skainos Centre in east Belfast will gain insight into the abilities of people with autism to organise and make systems.
Specialisterne has traditionally helped people with autism get jobs in IT and software development.
The initiative is the final and flagship event of Creativity Month in Northern Ireland.
Autism and Asperger syndrome are part of a range of conditions known as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). They affect the way the brain processes information.
Since its launch in April 2014, Specialisterne NI has identified 120 people who are on the autistic spectrum and who have the skills and talent for IT and creative roles.


A charity which helps homeless people in Wales has reported a significant increase in demand for its services.

Llamau supported 8,144 people facing homelessness in Wales in 2015-16 - an increase of 56% on the previous year.
Chief Executive Frances Beecher said it was "shocking".
She added: "Our mission is to eradicate homelessness in Wales and we will continue to work with partners in the public, private and third sector to achieve our mission."


Bath-based sprinter Leon Reid says he would not accept a place in Britain's World Championship team as he continues efforts to secure Irish eligibility.

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Reid, 22, finished a surprise third in the 200m at GB's World Championships Trials in Birmingham on Sunday.
The GB selectors still have a spot to fill alongside trials top two Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Danny Talbot.
"Even if they (the selectors) came and asked me and got down on one knee, I want to run for Ireland," says Reid.
The English-born athlete, whose mother was born in Belfast, competed for Northern Ireland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
However, he has represented Britain in international competition having won 200m silver medals at both European Junior and European Under-23 championships.
After winning the 100m and 200m at Wednesday's Belfast International meeting, Reid revealed that he began his attempts to switch international allegiance in June of last year.
"This has been in the works for a year and a week now. People have thought 'oh he wants to move because he's not running that well'. That's not the case. I'm all in for Ireland."
When asked whether he would turn down the offer of a place in the British team for next month's championships in London, Reid replied: "Yeah. I want to run for Ireland and I'm not going to let any of them stop that."
Reid's ambition of switching to Ireland appears to be in limbo following the IAAF's decision to halt all changes of nationality, pending a review of the current rules.
However, he is optimistic that he will be able to wear the green Irish vest sooner rather than later and has not totally given up hope of representing Ireland at next month's World Championships.
"There's no movement just yet but there is still a month until the World Championships. There's always a hope. As an athlete you've always got to be a bit of an optimist."
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Reid secured the World Championships standard as he clocked 20.38 seconds in Sunday's final in Birmingham as he finished ahead of Zharnel Hughes and last year's Olympic Games fourth placer Adam Gemili.
"I am on a bit of a high but it honestly does feel as though I've been hit by a truck. The way my body reacted on Monday. When I woke up I was sick in the sink."
Nevertheless, the 200m specialist was only denied a new 100m personal best in Belfast on Wednesday night by an marginal illegal wind reading as he clocked 10.32 seconds before easing to victory in the longer sprint in 21.02.
Earlier, Reid ran an impressive 4x100m leg although a subsequent botched baton change meant the Northern Ireland quartet failed to finish at the Mary Peters Track.
Reid will be part of another Northern Ireland attempt to achieve the Commonwealth Games relay standard of 39.70 seconds at the London Anniversary Games on Sunday, when paralympic star Jason Smyth will again be part of the team.
Seventeen-year-old high jumper Sommer Lecky was the only Northern Ireland athlete to achieve a Commonwealth Games consideration standard at Wednesday's meeting as she jumped 1.83m.
It was the third occasion that the Strabane Grammar School student has bettered the Commonwealths mark of 1.82m.
Christine McMahon is still searching for the Gold Coast 400m hurdles standard (57.30) as she clocked 58.30 seconds in winning her race.
In the women's 100m hurdles, Northern Ireland pair Mollie Courtney and Megan Marrs took a victory apiece in their two meetings while Ben Reynolds won the men's high hurdles in 13.82 seconds.
Marrs improved her personal best to 13.54 seconds in the heats - only 0.09 outside the Commonwealths standard - but Courtney won the final in 13.51 as Marrs clocked 13.72.
Courtney has already achieved the Commonwealth consideration standard on one occasion.
One of the most content athletes of the night was paralympic star Michael McKillop who warmed up for his IPC World Championships challenge later this month by clocking his fastest 800m time since 2013 with a 1:58.25 clocking.


It's a mixed bag in Monday's papers as they pull together the weekend's news.

It is quite telling that only one paper has politics on its front page, despite the fact Northern Ireland's parties are due to embark on renewed talks in a bid to resolve the Stormont crisis.
The News Letter leads with the story that Gerry Adams claimed he would talk about his "long-alleged involvement in the IRA" if an independent truth commission was established.
The Sinn FÃ©in leader told Sky News he would address his role in the Troubles "if there was a satisfactory arrangement put in place".
Doug Beattie, from the Ulster Unionist Party, told the paper that his offer to speak "under amnesty" was a "tacit admission he was withholding information".
The Irish News also carries Mr Adams' comments from the interview, during which he also talked about how much he was missing Martin McGuinness, who died suddenly last month.
He said a hastily put-together new executive "wouldn't last" without his former Sinn FÃ©in partner.
The paper's editorial calls on Secretary of State James Brokenshire to re-think his decision not to bring in mediators for the second round of talks.
"One of his many enormous problems is that he is expected to take charge of a vital process in which he is by some distance, in Stormont terms, the least experienced participant," it says.
Commentator Alex Kane questions whether bringing in an "outsider" to chair the talks would make a difference?
Writing in the News Letter, he suggests Jerry Springer or Judge Judy - "people who have a background in dealing with the dysfunctional and disagreeable" - but concludes they will only be effective if nationalists and unionists "want to share power with a common purpose and end in mind".
Sticking with politics, Ian Paisley tells the Daily Mirror it is "utterly disgraceful" that the security services tapped the phone of his late father while he was an MP.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott revealed the Rev Ian Paisley had his calls tapped despite a long-standing convention that MPs should not have their communications monitored.
The former Democratic Unionist Party leader's son, also an MP, pledged to raise the issue in Parliament when the Commons returns after Easter.
While Stormont debates, the business of running a country continues as normal.
And the Belfast Telegraph's front page exclusive is a warning from a former NHS boss, who says the health service overspend is spiralling to Â£300m.
Writing in the paper, John Compton said waiting lists would continue to grow and GP queues lengthen unless the Stormont crisis is resolved.
The former chief executive of the Health and Social Care Board talks about an "unprecedented financial challenge" at a time when there is no executive to "lead or take decisions".
"We will all notice and bear the consequences if this is not resolved, yet not all of our politicians seem anxious," he says.
One picture which features on all the front pages is that of Paul McCready - the father-of-two who died from injuries sustained during a night out in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter on Saturday.
It's the Daily Mirror's top story and the paper says the 31-year-old, from North Belfast, worked for the civil service in foods sciences, was engaged and had sons of primary school age.
The Belfast Telegraph say police have launched a murder inquiry and a 30-year-old man who was arrested at the scene remains in custody.
SDLP councillor Paul McCusker said Mr McCready was a "popular man" and his death had "shocked the north Belfast community".
The death of another young man - named by the Irish News as Christopher Martin - also receives a lot of coverage.
The 18-year-old was killed in a car crash near Crossgar in County Down while driving home on his own from Belfast in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The paper says Mr Martin, who was believed to be on a gap year before going to university, is the second teenager to die in a road crash in the area in three months.


Punishment of banks that break the rules may be better served by a new enforcer in the light of failures surrounding the HBOS collapse, MPs say.

Supervision and prosecution of the industry lies with the same watchdog - now the Financial Conduct Authority.
This system is "outdated and can be construed as unfair", warned the influential House of Commons Treasury Committee.
It has suggested separating the two functions "merits reconsideration".
In a report, the committee heaps renewed criticism on regulators for their role in the HBOS bank saga.
In 2008, HBOS became part of the Lloyds Banking Group and needed a Â£20.5bn injection from UK taxpayers to prevent it from crashing.
The committee, in this report, focused its microscope on regulators and investigators, rather than the bank itself.
"The regulators failed, both before and after the HBOS crisis. Seven years after the bank's collapse, we now know just how badly - and not because the regulators showed a spirit to learn the lessons of the past," said Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the committee.
The MPs considered a string of reports into the failure of HBOS and action taken by the regulator at the time - the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - as well as evidence given to the committee.
Mr Tyrie said: "The plain fact is that the FSA did not succeed in protecting consumers from spectacular regulatory failures."
The report described the watchdog at the time - the FSA - as "not up to the job" and "clearly a highly dysfunctional institution".
"Its legacy continues to pose a major challenge for its successor bodies, particularly the FCA," it said.
One way to deal with this problem was for the Treasury to study the idea of a new enforcement body, separate from the City watchdog. This was first suggested by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.
"A separate statutory body would bolster the perception of the enforcement function's independence. The current system, whereby the same organisation both supervises, applies and prosecutes the law is outdated and can be construed as unfair," the report said.
However, the Treasury rejected such a split in 2014, saying that there were "clear advantages to locating the supervisory and enforcement functions within the same organisation". Practical and legal issues could also affect the efficiency of regulation, it said at the time.
The FCA said: "We have a range of tools at its disposal of which enforcement is an essential one. We believe that if this regulatory tool is separated from the FCA it would potentially lessen our ability to be an effective regulator and impact our ability to protect consumers and ensure the integrity of the UK financial system."
In a wide-ranging Treasury Committee report, MPs make other criticisms, including:
New powers were now in place, the committee said, to ensure the failures were not repeated, although better regulation was still work in progress.
"Notwithstanding their own failings, prior to the crisis the regulators also lacked some of the tools they needed to supervise the banks," the report said.
"The regulators now have these tools. The committee expects the regulators to demonstrate a very high degree of independence, and transparency, in their use."
The Treasury said: "Since 2010, we have dismantled the failed tripartite system and put in place a more focused system of judgement-led supervision by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. We have also hardwired responsibility and accountability into the financial system, with an emphasis on key decision-makers at the top of banks.
"Our reforms directly address the regulatory failings identified in this report."


A woman has been found stabbed to death in Greater Manchester.

The 42-year-old was discovered with wounds to her chest after police were called to a house in Makinson Avenue, Wigan, at about 15:45 BST on Thursday.
The woman was taken to hospital, but died later, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.
A 51-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody. Detectives said their investigating was continuing.
Det Sgt Nigel Rigby, from GMP, said: "My thoughts and condolences are with her family and specialist officers are providing support to them at this traumatic time.
"We have one man in custody, but our investigation continues and I would urge anybody with information to contact the police."


Sussex batsman Chris Nash has signed a two-year extension to his contract, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2016 season.

The 29-year-old, who was appointed vice-captain of the side last month, has scored more than 10,000 runs since his first-class debut in 2002.
"I am delighted to have signed for the next four years," he said.
"Our success over the past decade has been great to be part of and I look forward to continuing that."
Nash, who joined the county at the age of nine, scored just shy of 1,000 runs and took 21 wickets in the County Championship last season while also contributing with bat and ball in both one-day formats.
He added: "Personally, I want to continue my good form across all competitions again next season and continue to push for higher honours."
Sussex coach Mark Robinson was delighted that Nash, who is currently spending his winter playing club cricket for Western Province in South Africa, has prolonged his stay at Hove.
"It is good news to know that Chris will be here for a minimum of the next four years, as we embark on an important time for the club," Robinson said.
"It is not only Chris's proven abilities with the bat and ball that we will be relying on, but also his ability to support and lead the team in his role as vice-captain."


Swansea City are set to sign Wales Under-20 defender Cian Harries from Coventry City.

A "small fee" has been agreed for the 20-year-old, who is expected to link up with Swansea's Under-23 side when the transfer is formally completed.
Harries made 16 appearances for the Sky Blues as they were relegated to League Two last season.
He played in the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley, before representing Wales at the Toulon Tournament.


A 47-year-old man faces 145 charges of rape, child exploitation and grooming offences allegedly committed in three Australian states.

The charges include five counts of rape, four of indecent treatment of children and eight of grooming children to engage in sexual acts, police said.
The man, from Warwick in south-east Queensland, allegedly committed the offences between 2002 and 2015.
Police have identified 28 alleged child victims so far, a statement said.
The victims were identified in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The police statement said more victims could be found as far away as Western Australia.
Police say the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, targeted children on a variety of social media sites, using names including "Jazz", "Jazzman" and "David Bourne".
"In some cases it will be alleged victims met the man and were subsequently taken to a hotel room where offences were committed," the Queensland Police statement said.
The operation was a joint investigation between the Warwick Child Protection and Investigation Unit and detectives from Taskforce Argos, the Queensland Police Service specialist online child exploitation team.
Taskforce Argos had earlier said it was thwarting at least one online sex predator targeting children each week.
The case comes as Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Canberra are working with Dutch police to examine a hard drive containing "many thousands" of child sex abuse images, allegedly taken by an Australian man arrested last month in the Philippines.
The AFP told the BBC that 256 Australian registered sex offenders had travelled to the Philippines in the past four years.
Police have been working on the Warwick case since April last year, trying to identify all the victims, said Detective Senior Constable Russell Joyce.
"The reactions when we have found them have been everything from embarrassment to shock and in some respects, relief," he told the Warwick Daily News.
"We are still going and we believe there are more victims out there," he said.
The case was briefly heard in the Warwick Magistrates Court on Monday.


Actor Nelsan Ellis's family has spoken about the actor's death on Saturday, in an effort to help other people who suffer from addiction.

The True Blood star died after years of suffering from drug and alcohol abuse.
In a statement, his family said Ellis, 39, was ashamed of his addiction and did not want to talk about it.
But they added: "His family, however, believes that in death he would want his life to serve as a cautionary tale in an attempt to help others."
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter through his manager Emily Gerson Saines, the family's statement continued: "Nelsan was a gentle, generous and kind soul.
"He was a father, a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, and a great friend to those that were lucky enough to know him."
Talking about the circumstances behind Ellis's death from heart failure, the statement explained: "After many stints in rehab, Nelsan attempted to withdraw from alcohol on his own.
"According to his father, during his withdrawal from alcohol he had a blood infection, his kidneys shut down, his liver was swollen, his blood pressure plummeted, and his dear sweet heart raced out of control."
Ellis played the flamboyant Lafayette Reynolds, a charismatic gay medium who was able to contact ghosts, in the HBO horror-drama series.
He appeared regularly throughout the series of True Blood after first appearing as the cook at a local restaurant in 2008.
He also featured alongside Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help in 2011.
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Google's headquarters in Zurich has a massage room, aquarium and a slide to deliver engineers smoothly and quickly to the canteen.

Deloitte's Amsterdam office was designed with one empty room on each floor for employees to put what they wanted in them - most have gone for games such as table football.
At LinkedIn's Californian HQ there is a music room, stocked with keyboards, drums, guitars and audio equipment.
And allowing employees to bring their pets to work is increasingly common.
So when did our offices turn into playgrounds, and does this represent the new way of working?
Technological advances mean that staff can avoid the drudgery of commuting and work from home, coffee shops, or any number of exotic locations. So some companies are working extra-hard to make their offices more attractive places to be.
A recent report from US software giant Citrix forecast that by 2017, some 50% of businesses would have a mobile working policy, and by 2020, 70% of people would work away from the office as often as they worked at a desk.
"Offices are expensive and office space will decline," says Citrix vice president Jacqueline de Rojas.
This is partly due to bosses realising not all jobs need to be done from an office, but also because employees are increasingly demanding a better work-life balance, she adds.
That doesn't mean that the office will die, though.
"Offices will become places of collaboration and connection because culturally we need touch points as we are social animals," she says.
Citrix has installed "genius benches" at its London headquarters - essentially higher and longer shared desks that come with stools, not chairs.
There are also moveable desks, like the ones at headphone maker Skullcandy's office in Zurich. The desks can be configured to work individually or collaboratively, fitting together like puzzle pieces.
Meanwhile, marketing firm Barbarian Group has created a "super-desk" at its New York office which sits up to 170 people, and includes archways where staff can go for private chats.
And Lego has taken hot-desking to the next level at its London and Singapore offices, introducing a system called activity-based working, which means that no-one has a fixed desk any more.
Space is divided into flexible work zones with no fixed seating and no offices for managers. Employees who leave their workspace for more than one-and-a-half hours need to take all their stuff with them.
Lego even has a department for "new ways of working" and, says senior director Sophie Patrikios, the experiment has gone well.
"In our May 2016 survey, 88% of staff said they liked the choice of where to work. They get a choice of different settings to suit their activity or mood, including a quiet library, a buzzing social area with background music, comfy chairs in cosy corners or big banks of desks to share with team-mates," she says.
Offices are also getting smarter. Research firm Gartner says commercial buildings are already at the forefront of the "internet of things" revolution.
Smart lighting, heating, and even sensors that measure how many people are in an office, are becoming commonplace.
Such technology plays a vital role in making buildings work more efficiently, but also raises questions about employee privacy and what happens to the data being collected.
More energy-efficient buildings can offer employee benefits too, says Theo Maessen, a senior partner at Dutch-based building design firm BOB (BOB stands for Best Office Building).
"We are building healthier offices that use more daylight, have systems that maintain a constant temperature that eliminates mould and dust, and therefore reduces the rate of illness among employees," he tells the BBC.
Using computer simulation, Mr Maessen can work out the optimum number of windows for a building - no more than 40% of it should be glass, apparently - as well as factors such as the ideal air flow.
The buildings he designs have no air-conditioning, using instead a geothermal system that takes advantage of the constant temperatures found underground.
Warm water is pumped in over winter and cooler water during the summer months.
The company uses wood-fibre bricks that breathe better and, as they are made from by-products from saw mills, are also more environmentally-friendly than traditional bricks.
Occupants of his offices can use an online tool to provide feedback on their welfare and make complaints. Positive feedback has been "very high", Mr Maessen says.
Hot-desking will become standard, he says, and buildings will have to adapt to different uses.
"Over several decades, the occupancy will change. What was an office may become flats or retail space. Clients will also want to experiment with different configurations of their interiors," he says.
"In 20 years maybe we won't work a five-day week, it may be that we work just three days a week, and we have to try to design a building that can accommodate those changes."
In future, office spaces will also be closer to where people live, he believes.
And communities will have communal office space that can be used by anyone, he predicts, cutting down on the need for travel.
Lego's Ms Patrikios agrees that big changes are on the way.
"We've already seen that work is no longer somewhere you go, but something you do," she says.
A greater shift towards flexible working and people having multiple part-time roles, rather than a job for life, will exacerbate the change.
In the future, "going to the office" will mean much more than just "going to work".
Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter
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New Zealand's Dane Coles will play his first Test since November when he faces Australia in Saturday's Rugby Championship game.

The 30-year-old hooker, who was nominated for world player of the year in 2016, has suffered knee, calf and concussion injuries in recent months.
Coles' inclusion is the only change to the starting XV that beat the Wallabies 54-34 in Sydney last time out.
Australia replace Samu Kerevi with Tevita Kuridrani at outside centre.
Rory Arnold drops to the bench to allow Rob Simmons to replace him in the second row alongside Adam Coleman.
On the New Zealand replacements bench, lock Scott Barrett has been chosen ahead of Luke Romano with prop Kane Hames preferred to Wyatt Crockett.
New Zealand: Damian McKenzie, Ben Smith, Ryan Crotty, Sonny Bill Williams, Rieko Ioane; Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith; Joe Moody, Dane Coles, Owen Franks, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Liam Squire, Sam Cane, Kieran Read (captain)
Replacements: Codie Taylor, Kane Hames, Ofa Tu'ungafasi, Scott Barrett, Ardie Savea, TJ Perenara, Lima Sopoaga, Anton Lienert-Brown
Australia: Israel Folau, Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Kurtley Beale, Henry Speight, Bernard Foley, Will Genia, Sean McMahon, Michael Hooper (captain), Ned Hanigan, Adam Coleman, Rob Simmons, Allan Alaalatoa, Stephen Moore, Scott Sio.
Replacements: Tatafu Polota-Nau, Tom Robertson, Sekope Kepu, Rory Arnold, Lopeti Timani/Jack Dempsey, Nick Phipps, Reece Hodge, Curtis Rona.


Police were told an intruder alarm had gone off at the scene of the Hatton Garden safe deposit box raid but decided it did not require a response.

About 70 safety deposit boxes were opened at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd in central London over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
The Met Police said they received a call on Friday 3 April at 00:21 BST.
Officers are now investigating why the call was given a grade that meant no police response was deemed necessary.
In a statement, the Met Police said: "It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident."
Meanwhile CCTV footage has emerged which appears to show the group of burglars behind the raid.
The video, obtained by the Mirror, shows men in high visibility jackets outside the safe deposit building.
One is seen pushing a wheelie bin, which the paper said could have contained the large drill used for breaking a hole through the lift shaft.
The Mirror said the men made two separate visits before leaving on Easter Sunday with the contents of 72 safety deposit boxes in wheelie bins and bags and making a getaway in a white van.
A source told the paper the raid was the work of a professional gang who "planned this job down to every last detail".
Scotland Yard has declined to comment on the footage.
The Met Police has said items were stolen from at least 56 safety deposit boxes and officers are in the process of contacting the holders.
In total, 72 boxes were opened. Five were vacant and 11 were due to be opened by the company following the non-payment of fees, police said.
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Danny Shaw said: "It is quite possible - and this is certainly one aspect that the inquiry will be looking at - that there had been so many false alarms previously that the police had decided not to respond to any more alerts.
"There is a police policy that if there are three false alarms in a 12-month period they won't respond anymore when intruder alarms go off and it is possible that may well have been what happened here."
He added that the security guard at the building had also been spoken to by officers.
The force said the investigation into why the grade was applied to the phone call would be carried out locally.
Southern Monitoring Alarm Company contacted the Metropolitan Police central communications command and the call was recorded and transferred to the computer aided despatch system.
The call stated a confirmed intruder alarm had been activated at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd, police said.
According to the Met's website, calls to the communications command are dealt with by an operator, who grades all incidents "in terms of their urgency".
The website states: "First contact operators will question the caller and gain all the relevant information necessary to ensure the best police response.
"Having completed this, the operator will grade the call in accordance with standard operating procedures for the type of incident."
Calls are passed to a despatch operator for deployment if required and police resources are assigned depending on the type of incident, the site says.
Previously, Scotland Yard said they were alerted to the burglary on Tuesday.
The Met said it was "photographing the scene and recovering exhibits in meticulous detail".  It would not comment on the total value of items stolen.
A heavy duty drill was used to bore holes into the 6ft (2m) thick walls reinforced with concrete to access the vault after the thieves had climbed down a lift shaft.
Experts said it was likely the thieves made several holes until they had created a big enough space to get through, which would have taken an experienced operator several hours.
Hatton Garden is famous for jewellery and the vault was used mainly by local jewellers and gold dealers.
No arrests have been made.


Photographs courtesy AFP, AP, Eyewitness News and Reuters

Pictures of violent protests near South Africa's capital, Pretoria, prompted by anger at the ANC's choice of a mayoral candidate.


Cristiano Ronaldo hit back at his critics after his 37th Real Madrid hat-trick helped them reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Real overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 on Tuesday.
In February, the Portuguese forward walked out of a Champions League news conference after being questioned about his record in away matches this season.
"Considering this has been a 'bad' season for me, it has not been that bad," Ronaldo, 31, said after victory.
He scored twice in three minutes early on to cancel out Wolfsburg's advantage, sweeping home at the back post from six yards before glancing a header into the far corner.
He completed his hat-trick and sealed Real's place in the last four with a 25-yard free-kick 13 minutes from time at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Ronaldo, who was booed by his own supporters during the 2-0 second-leg victory over Roma in the last 16, took his tally to 46 goals in all competitions this season, including 16 in the Champions League.
"It was not the best, but one of my best, European nights," said Ronaldo.
"It was a magic night for me. I'm very happy after having scored three goals and raised my numbers, but the most important thing was the team. The team was intense and played very well. It is a beautiful night.
"People can criticise me but I just keep on going and the numbers are there for all to see. I am very happy and with a month left of the season I can get even better.
"It's not bad, is it? Goals are in my DNA and I want to keep scoring them for the team."
Real coach Zinedine Zidane said: "What can I tell you about Cristiano? He is demonstrating how good he is. He makes the difference.
"He is the best player in the world and nights like tonight make him a special player. Cristiano needs the whole team too but not everyone can score three goals in a game."
Manchester City reached the semi-finals by beating Paris St-Germain, while Atletico Madrid face Barcelona and Benfica meet Bayern Munich on Wednesday for the final two places.
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The UN Security Council's adoption of a resolution to "redouble" action against the Islamic State group is an "important moment", David Cameron says.

The French-drafted document asking countries to "combat by all means this unprecedented threat" received universal approval on Friday night.
The PM said the vote "shows beyond doubt the breadth of international support" to "eradicate" IS.
IS has said it carried out the Paris attacks which left 130 people dead.
Mr Cameron is seeking to build cross-party support for UK air strikes against IS, also known as Isil, in Syria, though there is no timetable for a Parliamentary vote.
Meanwhile, Belgium has raised its terror alert in the Brussels region to the highest level, warning of a "very serious" and "imminent" threat. The Brussels metro network has been closed for the weekend.
The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Belgium, advising people to avoid busy places, including concerts, stations, airports, and shopping centres.
The UN resolution, co-sponsored by the UK, calls on nations to "redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist attacks" using all necessary measures.
The document condemns a number of terror attacks, including the killings of 30 Britons in a Tunisian beach resort in June.
British ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said it was a "clear, unambiguous message that there will be no respite from our collective efforts to stop, suppress and destroy Isil".
By Iain Watson, political correspondent, BBC News
The prime minister has always been clear that he believes extending air strikes from Iraq to Syria would be legal and wouldn't require UN approval.
But he has described the UN resolution as "an important moment". On one level, signalling the international community's resolve is certainly significant - but David Cameron clearly believes it has also made his own case for military action easier to argue.
He'll hope the resolution will give the green light to some sceptics on his own backbenches to vote for air strikes in due course, but more significantly it could provide cover for a significant number of Labour MPs to do the same.
However, the prime minister hasn't suggested that a parliamentary vote is imminent.
It's unlikely that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will regard last night's resolution as sufficient grounds for ending his opposition.
The text was backed by Russia, which has been dealing with the aftermath of a bomb which brought down a Metrojet Airbus 321 that crashed in the Sinai peninsula, on 31 October.
The IS-linked Sinai Peninsula group says it carried out that attack, which killed 224 people, most of whom were Russian tourists.
The UN resolution does not provide a legal basis for military action and does not invoke the chapter of the UN charter authorising the use of force.
But Mr Cameron - who insists the legal case for action is solid even without such approval - hopes it will help persuade Labour MPs to approve an escalation of the UK's military involvement.
MPs rejected air strikes against Syrian government forces in a 2013 vote.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to use a speech on Saturday to underline his position of staunch opposition, and will state that being "at the centre of a succession of disastrous wars" has undermined British security.
Mr Cameron, who is due to set out his "comprehensive case" for strikes against IS in Syria, said after the UN vote that "the world has united" against the terror group.
He also said it demonstrated "the breadth of international support for doing more in Syria and for decisive action to eradicate" IS.
The UN Security Council had also reiterated its determination to secure a "political solution" to the conflict in Syria, he said.
"Britain will continue to support our allies who are fighting Isil in Syria," he said.
"I will continue to make the case for us to do more and to build support in Parliament for the action that I believe is necessary for Britain to take to protect our own security, as part of a determined international strategy.
"We cannot expect others to shoulder the burdens and the risks of protecting this country."
IS is a notoriously violent Islamist group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. It has declared its territory a caliphate - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law - under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
IS demands allegiance from all Muslims, rejects national borders and seeks to expand its territory. It follows its own extreme version of Sunni Islam and regards non-believers as deserving of death.
IS projects a powerful image, partly through propaganda and sheer brutality, and is the world's richest insurgent group. It has about 30,000 fighters but is facing daily bombing by a US-led multi-national coalition, which has vowed to destroy it.
More on Islamic State


Andrew Brookes, a car worker from Bromsgrove, travelled by car with friends, who all survived.

This is the full statement to the inquests read by his sister, Louise Brookes:
I, Louise Brookes, speaking on behalf of the Brookes family, will say as follows.
My brother Andrew Mark Brookes was born on 10 December, 1962 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. He was the first child and only son of George and Gillian Brookes, and he was my older brother. Andrew was nine years older than myself.
Andrew worked at Land Rover at Longbridge, where my Dad also worked and so did most of his friends. Andrew was a lovely man, who I was very, and still am, immensely proud to have as a brother.
He had the patience of a saint, and I can honestly say that. Due to the nine-year age difference between myself and Andrew, he was more like a father figure to me than a brother.
Profiles of all those who died
He was very strict and he didn't tolerate any nonsense off me. He was a very dignified man, and he didn't like any attention being drawn to himself.
I remember my Mum saying, 'From the moment he got up until the moment he went to bed, he would say good morning and good night, and I hardly knew he was in the house for the rest of the day'.
From as long as I can remember, he was always a Liverpool fan. I remember his bedroom being covered in posters and scarves and he had a football sticker book and collected the stickers when he was younger.
He was always really happy when he opened the little slip and there was a Liverpool sticker inside. Andrew was a very sporty person; he loved his football, golf, darts and snooker.
He was the manager of a local Sunday league football team called Bromsgrove Dynamo. He also had many trophies for his darting skills.
I can honestly say that I have never heard a bad word said about my brother. He never gossiped about anyone or fell out with people, as he wasn't that kind of person.  He also never got into any trouble with the police during his life.
'Wonderful brother'
I remember my Mum saying after he died and West Midlands Police had brought some of his clothes back in a plastic bag, 'The only time Andrew ever brought the police to my door was when they brought his clothes back. I couldn't have wished for a better son. He never once brought me any worry or any trouble'.
Andrew was a very law abiding and a very disciplined, honest, reliable and trustworthy person. He had a lot of integrity and morals, and I feel very blessed to have had such a wonderful brother.
He taught me a lot and he made sure that his feisty, chatty sister stayed on the straight and narrow.
Education was extremely important to him. He was very academic, especially when it came to mathematics and English. I remember him telling me that I had to apply myself more at school.
I had so much respect for my brother. Andrew was 26 years old when he died at Hillsborough. He died four weeks before my 18th birthday. I felt that the Christmas of 1988 was when he was starting to take me seriously and I felt we were becoming closer.
'Apple of Mum's eye'
On Christmas evening, I remember myself and Andy walking back from my aunties and I remember thinking to myself, 'He's finally taking his little sister seriously'. I can't explain how happy that made me feel. Up until then, I felt that I was always his irritating little sister.
My brother was the apple of my Mum's eye. He was also very close to my Dad, as they spent a lot of time together sharing their sporting passions. My Dad would go and watch Andy's football team on a Sunday morning and I would sometimes go too.
I remember whenever there was a World Cup or a Euro competition, I would get back from school and the house would be packed with all my brother's friends. My Mum made plates of sandwiches, crisps and biscuits for all of them.
It became a tradition, that they always came to our house to watch the football.
My brother's nickname was 'Dexy', after Dexy's Midnight Runners, because they were one of his favourite bands. Other bands that he liked included the Human League and Spandau Ballet.
His pride and joy was his car. His first car was a yellow Ford Capri and later he got his first brand new car, red of course, Maestro.
I also remember him shopping in Birmingham at a shop called Olympus Sports, where he would spend an absolute fortune on his clothes. He loved his Diadorra trainers, Farah trousers, La Coste T-shirts and Pringle jumpers.
His favourite TV programmes were 'Brookside', 'Bread' and 'Boys from the Black Stuff'. He was Liverpool mad, whether that was football or TV programmes.
'Respect the police'
My brother had a brilliant sense of humour and you could always have a laugh and a joke with him. He wasn't a moody or a nasty person, and I honestly can't ever remember seeing him drunk, although he did like to have a beer.
Andrew was brought up to respect the police and my parents always told us that if ever we were in trouble, they were always there to help us. When my brother most 14 needed their help, they literally turned their backs on him.
I remember my brother's friends telling me after he died that the very first time my brother went for an Indian meal he asked them what the mildest curry was, and his friends decided it would be funny to tell him that a vindaloo was the mildest, which my brother proceeded to order.
After the first mouthful, it became apparent that they had set him up. Instead of being angry, he took the joke as it was intended.
On the day of Hillsborough, Andrew went with four friends: Mark Richards, Peter Wallis and two brothers, John and Stephen Harris. Although Andrew usually drove, on this occasion, at the last minute, Stephen stepped in to give him a rest.
Andrew was really happy on the morning of the match. I remember him coming into the house and seeing him put two GBP20 notes in his pocket and that he asked me to tape Match of the Day for him, but I said I wouldn't, as I wanted to tape something else.
I recall that he had spilled some orange juice on the work top and I was moaning at him because I'd put my sleeve into it. He dismissed my moaning with a laugh and went off as happy as he'd come in. I was the last one of my family to see him alive.
After he died, the whole dynamics of our family changed. Andrew had been so important to all of us.
'Not knowing'
Mum and Dad never really recovered. Mum had a heart attack in 1996 and succumbed to cancer in February 2000. Dad just shut himself away, and he never went back to work.
My dad passed away on 4 March this year, after a five-and-a-half-year battle with cancer. I only buried my dad 10 days before these inquests began.
It makes me so angry that both my parents have both gone to their graves without knowing how or why their son died. No parent should ever be deprived that right, especially for 25 years.
I do not have any other family left now and it is up to me alone to fight for my brother. I am my brother's voice, as much as it irritated him when he was alive.
I think of all the things we would have talked about, all the family occasions we would have gone to together, and I feel cheated. He was my big brother and I miss him more and more with each passing year.
I just want to do my brother proud and get him the justice he deserves. I didn't just lose my brother on 15 April, 1989, I lost my parents, too. The whole Brookes family died that day.
It has also taken my life away from me too. I don't live, I exist. I exist for one reason, and for one reason only, to ensure my brother's death was not in vain.


Crystal Palace's Joe Ledley will miss the FA Cup final and is rated "50-50" to be fit for Wales at Euro 2016.

Ledley fractured a leg against Stoke, but Wales assistant manager Osian Roberts has said he could be in their squad for France even if he is not fit.
"I think he's 50-50 [to make Euro 2016] - it's as tight as that," said Palace manager Alan Pardew.
"I'm sure Chris Coleman will be desperate to have him, so we're doing everything we can to help him."
Coleman names his 23-man squad for Euro 2016 on 31 May, and Wales play their first game on 11 June against Slovakia.
Ledley, 29, was named in Coleman's provisional squad for the tournament in France, before being ruled out of the FA Cup final.
Pardew described the loss of the midfielder for the match against Manchester United on 21 May as "desperate" news.
He said: "He was very disappointed when he heard the news but he's a strong character and now he's just determined to make the Euros, so he's got a good mindset again."
Pardew revealed the club will use an oxygen chamber to try to aid Ledley's recovery time.
Minor fractures can take up to six weeks to heal, though the recovery time for more severe fibula injuries can be about three months.
Roberts says Wales could take Ledley to Euro 2016 even if it means the former Cardiff player missing the early part of the competition.
"If he misses the opening game, but is available for the others, we'd want Joe to be part of things," said Roberts.
"If we need to give Joe a little bit of extra time, we'll do so. He deserves that.
"He's been a vital cog in the team for quite a few years and we hope he can recover in time.
"We'll have to wait and see how he reacts over the next couple of weeks. We're a stronger squad with Joe in it."
After facing Slovakia, Wales take on England in Lens on Thursday, 16 June before finishing the group stage against Russia on Monday, 20 June.
It would be a significant blow to Coleman if Ledley was missing from his Euro 2016 squad, as Wales prepare for their first major international football tournament since 1958.
He played an integral part in qualifying for France, featuring in seven of the 10 Group B games, and offers valuable experience to the Welsh midfield.
Wales will travel to Portugal for a pre-tournament training camp on 23 May.
After the final squad announcement, Wales play Sweden away on 5 June, their last friendly before Euro 2016.


More than 2,000 suspected criminals avoided prosecution in England and Wales last year because of their ill-health or age, figures have shown.

The Crown Prosecution Service said 1,892 cases were dropped at court due to the "significant ill-health, elderliness or youth" of a defendant.
Another 439 cases were abandoned before the suspect was charged.
The CPS said the number of cases dropped for these reasons accounted for 0.3% of all prosecutions in 2014.
Such prosecutions dropped at court were 1,714 in 2013 and 1,402 in 2012. Those dropped before charge were 354 in 2013 and 128 in 2012.
Between January and March this year, 516 were dropped at court and 132 before charge.
The charity Victim Support said it was important that the decision not to prosecute was explained to victims.
Chief executive Mark Castle said: "Victims often fear that they will not be believed, so it can be many years before they come forward.
"It is critical that victims have the reasons behind a decision not to prosecute properly explained to them so that they understand that it does not mean they have not been believed."
The figures - released after a Freedom of Information Act request by the Press Association - did not specify the nature of the suspected offence.
The CPS said the decision to prosecute was made if there was both sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest.
A spokeswoman said: "The Code for Crown Prosecutors recognises that the more serious the offence, the more likely it is that a prosecution is required, and the age or ill-health of a defendant will be taken into account when deciding whether to prosecute."
In the case of former Labour MP Lord Janner, who has dementia, the CPS decided not to pursue historical child sex abuse claims against him.
The decision was overturned following a review, and a fitness to plead hearing is due to take place on 7 December. Lord Janner denies the allegations.


Several hundred activists had been protesting close to the Ukrainian parliament building from early in the morning.

Initially it was calm, even after MPs had voted for the draft bill that the activists were protesting against.
I was covering the vote inside parliament.
But some minutes after the speaker brought the session to a close I heard noises coming from the square near the parliament. Almost everything was visible through the window.
At first there were minor clashes.
Two walls of people faced each other - well-equipped police and protesters.
The demonstrators numbered barely more than a few dozen - mainly young men, most of them masked. They started the fights with police, but others supported them.
The protesters tried to pull the policemen away from their lines. They beat them and took their shields and helmets. Soon about a dozen young men were almost as well-equipped as the police.
It was hard to tell who threw the first smoke grenade as they came from both police and protesters.
Several times the atmosphere near the building seemed to calm down for a while, with clashes starting up again.
And then the explosions began.
Anyone who experienced the clashes in the centre of Kiev in early 2014 will remember the blasts being very loud but generally harmless.
But suddenly there was a blast that was clearly louder than the previous explosions.
The grenade - or whatever it was - fell between the parliament building and the wall of police, just behind them.
I saw some people - policemen and a fireman - falling to the ground, and some running away from the site, limping. I saw pools of blood just near the wall of parliament
Several policemen appeared to be heavily injured. As the clashes continued their colleagues tried to help them
The violence after that was not as intense. There were more blasts, and everybody seemed frightened by what had happened.
An ambulance arrived at the parliament entrance and about five policemen limped over to it.
Most of the masked young men had by now disappeared from the square. A few protesters threw plastic bottles at the police, but finally the explosion of violence was over.


A new ingredient developed by scientists in Scotland could mean that ice cream lovers can enjoy their treats longer before they melt.

A naturally occurring protein can be used to create ice cream which stays frozen for longer in hot weather.
The scientists estimate that the slow-melting product could become available in three to five years.
The development could also allow products to be made with lower levels of saturated fat and fewer calories.
Teams at the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee have discovered that the protein, known as BsIA, works by binding together the air, fat and water in ice cream.
It is also said to prevent gritty ice crystals from forming - ensuring a fine, smooth texture.
Professor Cait MacPhee, of the University of Edinburgh's school of physics and astronomy, who led the project, said: "It's not completely non-melting because you do want your ice cream to be cold... it will melt eventually but hopefully by keeping it stable for longer it will stop the drips."
The team developed a method of producing the protein - which occurs naturally in some foods as a friendly bacteria.
Professor MacPhee said it works by keeping oil and water mixed together, stops air from escaping and coats the ice crystals in ice cream which stops them from melting so quickly.
She told BBC Radio 5 live: "This is a natural protein already in the food chain. It's already used to ferment some foods so its a natural product rather than being a 'Frankenstein' food.
"By using this protein we're replacing some of the fat molecules that are currently used to stabilise these oil and water mixtures so it can reduce the fat content, but it shouldn't taste any different.
She said it also had the prospect of reducing the sugar content and could be used in other foods such as chocolate mousse and mayonnaise to help reduce the calories.
The researchers believe using the ingredient could benefit manufacturers too as it can be processed without impacting on performance and can be produced from sustainable raw materials.


Referee John Beaton and his officials must have been expecting an after-match caning from Canning at Ibrox on Saturday.

Rob Maclean continues his series assessing the main talking points from the weekend's Scottish football action.
Hamilton manager Martin Canning certainly had a stick with which to be beatin' Beaton after dodgy decisions gave Rangers a helping hand into the last four of the Scottish Cup.
So the Accies gaffer deserves massive credit for resisting the temptation - others would have jumped at the chance - to lay all the blame on poor refereeing.
Martin said his Hamilton defence had performed as badly as the ref and his assistants and he was right.
But that doesn't disguise a dismal day for the match officials.
Joe Garner shouldn't have been on the pitch to complete his first Rangers hat-trick but he can certainly use that big stroke of luck to set about proving his worth.
Few would argue that a wild swing of his boot in the direction of Hamilton's Dougie Imrie deserved a red card rather than the yellow shown to him.
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Just as few would contest the view that former Preston striker Garner has provided little return on the £1.8m Rangers paid for him.
But a Scottish Cup treble won't do him any harm, even if at least one of his goals came gift-wrapped. And there were signs on Saturday of the prolific goal poacher Rangers reckoned they'd signed.
It was the great escape for Garner and he'll hope he can kick on from it.
Let's be having Graeme Shinnie in the Scotland squad.
The Aberdeen captain scored the only goal of Sunday's BBC Scotland live match against Partick Thistle at Pittodrie to lead his team into the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
It was only his second strike of the season and obviously it's not his scoring prowess that should have Shinnie's name jotted down in Gordon Strachan's notebook.
It's his adaptability and dependability which make him a manager's dream, added to his high energy levels and low error count.
Shinnie could play alongside Scott Brown in central midfield or fill the problem right back berth.
It's not his best position but he's played there before and wouldn't let Scotland down.
Championship strugglers St Mirren have a double boost to take with them into Wednesday's relegation crunch match against Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy.
They were a goal up at Celtic Park on Sunday against the runaway Premiership leaders for the best part of an hour.
And Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, relieved after his team came back to win 4-1, said Saints were the best domestic side he's faced this season.
Jack Ross and his squad would happily swap that compliment for three points at Stark's Park to improve their chances of survival.
But giving Celtic a scare, on the back of beating Hibs, doesn't do the Paisley team's hopes any harm.
Ayr United, like St Mirren, have to get back to the business of battling for their Championship place after their Scottish Cup run ended in the quarter finals.
And they'll look back on their 3-1 defeat at Easter Road and wonder if they could have pulled off a shock against Hibs had they kept all 11 players on the pitch.
Two goals down in 12 minutes, Ian McCall's team were revitalised by one of the best strikes you'll see from 19-year-old Craig McGuffie.
That lifted their hopes of turning around a 2-1 deficit but a red card on the stroke of half-time for on-loan Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna's crazy challenge on John McGinn put Hibs back in control.
As shame-faced McKenna disappeared down the tunnel, Ayr's Cup dream went with him.


Retailer Argos's website has suffered problems for a second day following a revamped design of the site.

It displayed an error message on some computers, but not others, saying access had been blocked because of a "high volume of visitors".
Users had complained that this was inaccurate bearing in mind it was being shown in the early hours of the morning and the issue was continuing.
Argos said it was an intermittent problem that might take time to solve.
The company - which is owned by the Milton Keynes-based Home Retail Group - said that its site was currently working, but might face further issues.
"Following planned maintenance to our website and apps, we have been experiencing some technical issues which means customers may have limited access to our website at intermittent periods," a spokeswoman told the BBC.
"We are really sorry for any inconvenience caused. Serving customers is our absolute priority and are pulling out all of the stops to fix the problem as soon as possible."
She said the site had only been offline to all customers for "just over half a day" on Tuesday morning.
The firm had used social media to apologise for the problem, but unless customers searched for the posts they would not have been aware of them since more recent marketing tweets were embedded into the "fault" page.
The spokeswoman said the failure to properly explain the problem on the page was in itself "caused by a technical issue which is currently being fixed".
One retail expert said it was not unusual for website updates to create glitches, but suggested the company should have explained the issue more clearly.
"Any retailer that has a robust enough e-commerce platform should have some sort of contingency plan in place around communication," said Steve Mader, from the consultancy Kantar Retail.
"Argos has historically done a fairly good job of doing iterative improvements on its website - although in heavy periods leading up to Christmas it has been known to slow down or restrict access.
"I think for every retailer, having an outage like this can be a wake-up call."


The last of the original PG Tips chimpanzees has died at Twycross Zoo.

Choppers, who was 48, played Ada in the adverts that were broadcast on TV from the 1950s.
The zoo said the "much-loved" ape had signs of heart and liver failure and the decision to put her to sleep was made on Wednesday.
In 2014, the zoo told the BBC the use of apes on television had been wrong and Choppers was "mixed up" as a result.
Chimps like Choppers were trained by Twycross, in Leicestershire.
More on this story and other news in Leicestershire
They were dressed up in clothes and lip-synced with the voices of actors such as Peter Sellers and Bob Monkhouse.
They also appeared in children's shows Tiswas and Blue Peter and their messy tea parties were a big hit with the public.
After about 30 years the zoo ended its agreement for its apes to be used in advertising, but chimpanzees from abroad still appeared in tea adverts until 2003.
Twycross, which benefitted from revenue raised from the PG Tips ads, has since said the use of the apes was wrong.
As a baby, Choppers was rescued from poachers in Liberia by a British couple who brought her to be cared for at Twycross in 1973.
However, a life in TV had a damaging effect on the ape and it was only in her twilight years that she learned how to behave like a chimpanzee, zoo bosses said.
After her co-habitant Louis, who played Mr Shifter in the PG Tips adverts, died in their enclosure in July 2013, Choppers was introduced to the other apes in the zoo's collection.
It was an attempt to encourage her to exhibit more chimp-like behaviour and according to Dr Charlotte Macdonald, director of life sciences at the zoo, Choppers took to it well.
"She loved grooming the other chimps and even the keepers, she was very friendly and sociable," she said.
"She integrated well into the larger group [after Louis died] and acted as a peacemaker, she wanted to be everyone's friend.
"We are very upset and she will be sadly missed."
PG Tips commercials


Police probing the fatal shooting of a mother-of-nine and her nephew at their north London flat have arrested two men.

Annie Besala Ekofo, 53, and Bervil Kalikaka-Ekofo, 21, were found dead in East Finchley on Thursday.
The Met Police said a 24-year-old man was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of murder and is in custody at a north London police station.
A 20-year-old man held on Saturday has been released on bail until October.
Scotland Yard also revealed Mr Kalikaka-Ekofo had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
A post-mortem examination for the University of West London psychology student took place at Northwick Park Hospital mortuary on Saturday, it said.
A post-mortem examination on Ms Besala is yet to take place.
Detectives earlier launched a fresh appeal for witnesses.
They said there was no evidence to suggest the pair were the intended victims but would be exploring whether anyone else linked to their address could have been a potential target.
Police were called to Elmshurst Crescent by the London Ambulance Service at about 06:25 BST and found the pair in their flat.
Four other people, including a child, were also at the property at the time of the incident but were not harmed.


Britain's competition watchdog has given the green light to the Â£11bn merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had decided not to refer the tie-up to an in-depth investigation.
The decision paves the way for the deal's completion in August.
The merger will create Europe's second-biggest fund manager, with Â£670bn under management.
The enlarged company, to be called Standard Life Aberdeen, will be headed up by Keith Skeoch and Aberdeen boss Martin Gilbert.
On Monday, investors in both firms overwhelmingly backed the merger during general meetings.
The deal, announced in March, is targeting cost savings of Â£200m a year, with about 800 jobs expected to be lost over a three-year period from a global workforce of 9,000.
In a joint announcement on Thursday, the companies said: "Standard Life and Aberdeen note the announcement today by the CMA that it has completed its review of their proposed merger and has cleared the transaction unconditionally.
"The transaction is currently expected to complete on 14 August 2017, subject to remaining regulatory approvals."


I admit I'm no IT expert, but over the past few days I've spoken to plenty of people who are.

These are people who have either engineered airline IT networks or actually worked on British Airways' systems in the past.
What I've heard is a lot of confusion and scepticism at the idea that a local power surge could have wreaked such havoc.
There is also confusion as to why back-up systems didn't do their job.
Only the people in the room know exactly what happened, so these views are based on the information made public, and bucketfuls of IT experience, including at BA.
One put it like this: "BA has two data centres near Heathrow, about a kilometre apart, so how could a power surge affect both?"
Then there are all the fail-safes in place.
The two data centres mirror each other I'm told, so when one collapses the other should take over.
All the big installations have back-up power. If the mains fails, a  UPS (uninterruptable power supply) kicks in. It's basically a big battery that keeps things ticking over until the power comes back on, or a diesel generator is fired up.
This UPS is meant to take the hit from any "surge", so the servers don't have to.
All the big servers and large routers, I'm told, also have dual power supplies fed from different sources.
I'm also told that, certainly a while ago, they used to have regular outages to confirm all the back-up bits were working. And daily inspections of the computer room. There is no reason to think these were stopped.
It's not even clear who was monitoring the system at the crucial time. Was it a contractor? How much experience did they have?
The point is this: certainly up until a while ago, British Airways' IT systems had a variety of safety nets in place to protect them from big dumps of uncontrolled power, and to get things back on their feet quickly if there was any problem. I'm assuming those safety nets are still there, so why did they fail? And did human error play a part in all this?
British Airways chief executive Alex Cruz told me recently that the company has launched an exhaustive investigation into what went wrong, although no-one can say when it will report back, and whether the findings will ever be made public.
If BA wants to repair its reputation, its owner IAG needs to convince the public that making hundreds of IT staff redundant last year did not leave them woefully short of experts who could have fixed the meltdown sooner. And that it won't happen again - at least not on this epic scale.
Mr Cruz was adamant, by the way, that the outsourcing did not contribute in any way to this mess.


When a Queensland newspaper reported that Vegemite was being used to brew alcohol in remote Indigenous communities, local and foreign media went into overdrive.

There were suggestions the salty spread was being distilled in bathtubs and children were drinking the brew.
Quotes by the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion that sales of the humble paste should be limited in some remote communities were quickly re-reported, including by the BBC.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott soon stepped in, dismissing suggestions of any Vegemite bans, but he did not rebut the home-brew allegations.
The real story appears to be quite different.
Vegemite manufacturer Mondelez International dismisses the illicit brew angle.
"The autolysis process and subsequent yeast processing in the manufacture of Vegemite kills the yeast," Mondelez spokesperson, Sandra Dal Maso said in a statement.
"As sugar and active yeast are two elements required in the brewing process, Vegemite cannot be fermented into alcohol," Ms Dal Maso said.
Scientists agree, telling the BBC that other ingredients would have to be present.
Alcohol can be made from just about any food if there is a sugar source and the right type of yeast present, says molecular bioscience researcher at the University of Queensland, Dr Maggie Hardy.
So why did people think Vegemite was being used in remote Indigenous communities to brew moonshine?
Mr Scullion's office told the BBC the minister's quotes that Vegemite was a "precursor to misery" had been cherry-picked from a longer interview about the dangers of home-brewed alcohol.
He had visited Mornington Island, in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria, earlier in the year, where the home-brew problem was discussed, his office says.
A community advocate on Mornington Island told the BBC that Vegemite was "definitely" being added to home-brews but said that the story was a "red herring".
Dr Berry Zondag, from Junkuri Laka Wellesley Islands Aboriginal Law, Justice and Governance Association, says alcohol management plans are pushing problem drinking underground within his unique, and isolated community.
Dr Zondag believes locals are getting around a government alcohol ban by brewing their own drinks.
His community is one of 19 in Queensland where the state government has imposed alcohol restrictions on the grounds of improving people's health.
He is calling for individual alcohol licences with strict behavioural conditions attached.
What would be banned next, he asks: "Fruit juice? Sugar? Even Water? There are much more profound, serious questions".
Dr Hardy agrees the issue is a wider one.
"If there are problem drinkers in a community, it's obviously not the fact that science allows you to ferment alcohol; it's being confounded by larger societal problems," she  told the BBC.


Armagh proved too strong for Fermanagh in Sunday's Round 1B qualifier in the All-Ireland Football Championship.

The result will come as a relief to manager Kieran McGeeney as he sought to improve on a record of just one win in seven games at Championship level.
Fermanagh did score five points in a row to lead by three in the first half.
But after that, Armagh took command and were 0-13 to 0-7 up when Fermanagh's Eoin Donnelly was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.
The Orchard county, whose Ulster ambitions had been ended by Down at the quarter-final stage, will discover their next opponents on Monday when the draw for round 2B is made.
For Fermanagh, the Championship road ends in disappointment at the Athletic Grounds and there will be speculation about whether Pete McGrath's four-year tenure as manager will be extended.
The Erne county were well beaten 1-20 to 1-11 by Monaghan in the preliminary round of the Ulster Championship and were second best again in this first-round qualifier.
After conceding those five unanswered points, Armagh responded with five of their own from Andrew Murnin, Jamie Clarke, Rory Grugan (2) and Ciaran O'Hanlon.
McGeeney's men led by 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval and then ran away with it in the second period.
Fermanagh had started without top scorer Sean Quigley, although the big forward was introduced as a substitute 11 minutes into the second half.
He did pop over a couple of points but the visitors simply were unable to stem the flow of points coming from the boots of Armagh's Niall Grimley, Ethan Rafferty, Stefan Campbell and star turn Clarke.
Tomas Corrigan was Fermanagh's top scorer with six frees, while Grimley with six and Grugan on five were Armagh's top marksmen.


Russian President Vladimir Putin said "there can be no place for doping in sport" after his country's athletes were told their ban from this summer's Olympics remained in place.

Russian track and field athletes are banned from Rio 2016 after claims of a state-sponsored doping programme.
Putin said: "Sport must be clean and the health of athletes must be reliably protected."
He wants Vitaly Smirnov, 81, to lead a new anti-doping commission.
Smirnov is an honorary International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and an experienced Russian and Soviet sports administrator.
Putin said he had an "absolutely unimpeachable reputation'' and "the trust and respect of the Olympic family".
The Russian leader wants the new commission to provide "rapid development and tough control for the effective realisation of a national plan on the fight against doping".
In an earlier statement, he said: "Everyone knows very well the situation around our application for the Rio Olympics, and the well-known decisions associated with the use of doping.
"In this connection, I want to stress once again: the official position of the Russian authorities, the government and the president, all of us, is that there can be no place for doping in sport."
Separately, the  IOC is considering calls to ban all Russian competitors from the Rio Games following a second report into state-sponsored doping.
It found evidence of Russian urine samples being "manipulated" across the "vast majority" of summer and winter Olympic sports from late 2011 to August 2015.
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said he was "saddened" by the "unacceptable" prospect of a total ban on Russian competitors.
Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union, has written an open letter to the IOC.
In it, he said: "I support the fight against prohibited substances in sport. It is evil that must be eradicated. Those athletes who are proven to have doped should be banned from competitions.
"I am deeply worried by the fact there also were Russian citizens among officials and athletes who used doping and falsification for the sake of 'victory at any price'.
"At the same time, I am concerned and deeply saddened by the possibility that in case all Russian athletes are banned from competing in the Olympic Games, the innocent will be punished together with the guilty.
"The principle of collective punishment is unacceptable for me. I am convinced that it contradicts the very culture of the Olympic movement based on universal values, humanism and principles of law."
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A new law to protect historic monuments and buildings in Wales has been passed by the assembly.

The Historic Environment (Wales) Bill gives local authorities powers to make owners carry out repairs if they damage monuments.
Battlefields, prehistoric settlements and place names will also be recorded.
It follows concern that out of 119 cases of damage to sites between 2006 and 2012 only one resulted in a successful prosecution.
The new law will make it more difficult for people to claim ignorance of a monument's status or location.
Authorities will be allowed to take urgent action to stop unauthorised work on sites, and there will be measures to prevent historic buildings from falling into disrepair.
Historic environment records - including place names - will also be put on a statutory footing in a UK first for Wales.
Justin Albert, National Trust director for Wales, said: "Sustaining and enhancing our historic environment will undoubtedly show the world what a proud, caring and forward-thinking country we are - a country that people will be eager to visit and share with us."
In 2013, a stretch of the 1,200-year-old Offa's Dyke, on privately owned land between Chirk and Llangollen, was found flattened.
But police said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges over damage to the ancient earthwork, which was built in the 8th Century as a boundary between King Offa's domain and Wales.


A video game industry insider has revealed how he helped track down a "troll" who had threatened to leak his company's secrets.

Sam van Tilburgh said his team had managed to identify the teenager and obtain some of his schoolwork, which it then published online as a warning.
The firm followed this up with its own threat to alert the youth's family to his activities.
More than a decade later, the stolen materials remain private.
Mr Van Tilburgh disclosed the affair at an event held by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) on Tuesday evening.
Others on the panel gasped when they heard of the unusual tactics taken by Lionhead Studios, which occurred before the developer was sold to Microsoft.
The events took place in 2003, at which point Lionhead was working on what was to become its biggest game: Fable.
"There was this little group, and they were called Kibitz," Mr Van Tilburgh recalled.
"They managed to get their hands on some screenshots.
"One of which was the hero of Fable stabbing a little kid through the head. It was never meant to be released for obvious reasons.
"But they managed to get their hands on more material unannounced to this day... and they threatened us, the community team, with releasing them."
In tackling the crisis, the Guildford-based community managers had one crucial element in their favour.
The images had been posted to Lionhead's own forums, which gave the staff access to the internet protocol (IP) address of the person who had uploaded them.
IP addresses can easily be traced back to a physical location through a variety of online tools, assuming the user has not taken steps to conceal the details.
In this case, the 16-year-old culprit had not taken the precautionary measures.
"We knew where the guy was living and managed to get a hold of the guy's high school record through a mate, including the poem that he had recited at his end of year [class]," Mr Van Tilburgh said.
"We wrote a public message as Lionhead Studios to the group Kibitz and we started the message with the opening lines of the poem he had recited in high school, and we included the landmark he could see from his house where he lived.
"And I said, 'You have got to stop this now otherwise I pass all this information on to your mum.'"
The move could have backfired and created a scandal for Lionhead ahead of Fable's release. Mr Van Tilburgh acknowledged that the studio's legal team was only told of the matter at a later point.
But he added that the risk paid off.
"He kept quiet and he was a very kind polite boy after that," he said.
"I met him many times after at community events."


A deal has been struck on building a 1,700km (1,050m) pipeline to carry Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

The Tapi project aims to feed energy-deprived South Asian markets and transit fees may benefit Afghanistan.
But details about security and funding were not addressed in the framework agreement reached by the four states.
The pipeline will have to cross Taliban-controlled regions and Pakistan's troubled border region.
Turkmenistan has previously costed the project at $3.3bn (Â£2.1bn, 2.5bn euros) although other estimates are as high as $10bn.
Tapi, a project which dates back to the mid-1990s, is backed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The US has also encouraged the project as an alternative to a proposed Iranian pipeline to India and Pakistan.
The framework intergovernmental agreement was signed in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat by three presidents - Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan - and India's energy minister, Murli Deora.
"This will not be an easy project to complete - it is mandatory that we guarantee the security of the pipeline and the quality of construction work," ADP chief Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters in Ashgabat.


The imam of China's largest mosque - in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang - has been killed in what appears to be a targeted assassination.

Jume Tahir, 74, was reportedly stabbed after he led early morning prayers at the Id Kah mosque on Wednesday.
His killing came two days after dozens of people were reportedly killed or injured in clashes with police in Yarkant county, in the same prefecture.
The reasons for his death remain unclear.
But the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says Mr Tahir, who was from Xinjiang's mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, was a vocal and public supporter of Chinese policies in the region.
Radio Free Asia quoted an unnamed shopowner near Id Kah as saying he saw a body lying in a pool of blood front of the mosque in the morning and police clearing a huge crowd that had gathered. He was told the body was that of Mr Tahir.
A hasty burial was conducted by the late afternoon and the funeral procession was heavily guarded by military and police, according to The Los Angeles Times .
Shortly after his death, police sealed off roads in and out of Kashgar and cut internet and text messaging links to other parts of China. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Mr Tahir was appointed imam of the 600-year-old mosque by China's ruling Communist Party.
Some say he was deeply unpopular among many Uighurs who disliked the fact that he praised Communist Party policies while preaching in his mosque.
He had also echoed the official government line that blamed the rising level of violence in Xinjiang on Uighur separatists and extremists, says our correspondent.
On Monday, a knife-wielding gang attacked a police station and government offices triggering clashes that killed "dozens" of Uighur and Han Chinese civilians, according to state media outlet Xinhua.
But activists disputed this account and said that local Uighurs were protesting against a Chinese crackdown on the observance of Ramadan, which ended on Monday.
Reports surfaced earlier this month that some government departments in Xinjiang were banning Muslim staff from fasting during Ramadan, and several university students told the BBC that they were being forced to have meals with professors.
There has been an upsurge in Xinjiang-linked violence that authorities have attributed to Uighur separatists.
In May at least 31 people were killed when two cars crashed through an Urumqi market and explosives were thrown. In March, a mass stabbing at Kunming railway station killed 29 people.
In response Chinese authorities have launched a year-long security campaign which includes increased police and troop presence in key cities and towns in Xinjiang. Scores of people have been arrested, and some sentenced to lengthy jail terms or death.


New guidelines have come out telling vloggers that they need to be clear and honest with their followers if they're being paid to say something is good.

19 August 2015 Last updated at 08:34 BST
It's after Newsround raised a complaint, in November 2014, with the Advertising Standards Authority which makes the rules for adverts in the UK.
Newsround highlighted a group of UK vloggers who were paid to say good things about Oreo biscuits, but none of the videos were labelled as adverts.
Now if a vlogger is being paid to say something good about a particular product or service then they must clearly say that it's an advert.


Students from the United Kingdom should soon find it easier to gain entry to Republic of Ireland universities due to change in the admission points system.

From September 2016, the Irish Universities Association (IUA) is set to increase the number of points awarded for most A-level grades.
The change will see the value of a top "A star" A-level grade increase from 150 admission points to 180 points.
It should help to redress a 2005 move that cut the points value of A-levels.
At present, even high-performing A-level students who achieve three "A star" grades in their exams are unable to get a place in many popular university courses in the Republic of Ireland, such as law.
It stems from the fact that most sixth form pupils in Northern Ireland take three A-level exams, whereas school leavers in the Republic of Ireland usually study for least six subjects in their Leaving Certificate exam.
Ten years ago, Irish universities' Central Admissions Office (CAO) points system was revised to help universities on both sides of the Irish border compare the results of  the different exam systems.
The 2005 move substantially reduced the number of CAO points awarded for A-levels - to take account of academic opinion that studying six subjects for the Leaving Cert was equivalent in difficulty to taking four, not three, A-levels.
As a result, under the existing points system, the top A-star grade at A-level is worth 150 points, whereas the top A1 grade in a Leaving Certificate subject is worth 100 points.
Therefore a student getting six top grades at Leaving Certificate level will get 600 points, whereas a student getting top grades in three A-levels can only achieve a maximum of 450 points.
For the last decade, it has meant that even if a UK student obtains the highest marks in their three chosen A-level subjects, their CAO points total is well short of the 500+ points required for most prestigious college courses.
The small number of sixth-forms who take four A-levels are the only pupils who have a realistic chance of competing for a place in one of the Republic's top universities.
The IUA, the umbrella body representing all seven universities in the Republic of Ireland, recently carried out a review of undergraduate admissions policies.
It has recommended that the CAO points awarded for an A grade at A-level increase from 135 to 150, while a B grade will rise from 120 points to 130.  C grades will not change, remaining at 100 points.
It is hoped that it will help to attract more high-achieving students from Northern Ireland and Great Britain to study in the Republic.
All seven Irish universities are recommending the new system to their academic councils.


Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane have been appointed as the Republic of Ireland coaching team on a two-year deal.

The Republic parted company with Giovanni Trapattoni in September after failing to qualify for the World Cup.
"I think I'm the bad cop and he's the bad, bad cop," O'Neill, who will take over as manager, told ITV.
"I'm honoured Martin has asked me to work with him," added Keane. "I'm looking forward to working with the players and getting to the Euros."
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The Republic's next fixtures are friendlies against Latvia on 15 November and Poland four days later.
O'Neill, 61, who won 64 caps for Northern Ireland, has been out of football since being sacked by Sunderland in March while his assistant Keane, 42, was dismissed by Ipswich in January 2011.
Keane gained 67 international caps, but caused controversy as captain of his country when he quit the Republic squad before the 2002 World Cup after falling out with then manager Mick McCarthy.
"I am very lucky to get another opportunity," Keane added. "I think I have deserved another chance to get back into football. It is great to work with Martin and hopefully we won't let anybody down."
Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney told BBC Sport he and Keane had "an open conversation" when they met for the first time last week.
"I was very taken by him, I was very impressed by him and he was very passionate about a managerial role around this team," Delaney said.
"Martin wanted Roy as his assistant. I'm delighted with that, there is no problem whatsoever."
Delaney has confirmed that businessman Denis O'Brien will once again help to finance the salary of the Republic management as was the case during Trapattoni's reign.
O'Brien was believed to have contributed around half of the previous management team's salaries.
FAI chief Delaney also thanked Celtic's majority shareholder Dermot Desmond for "his very influential role in facilitating this appointment".
O'Neill began his managerial career at Wycombe and also had spells in charge of Norwich and Leicester before spending five years at the helm at Celtic.
He led the Glasgow side to the domestic treble in his first season and in 2003 took them to the Uefa Cup final where they lost in extra time to Jose Mourinho's Porto.
O'Neill also managed Aston Villa from 2006-2010 and led the club to three successive sixth-placed finishes. He spent 16 months in charge of Sunderland but was sacked after a run of eight games without a win left them one point above the relegation zone.
Delaney added: "Once Martin declared his interest, it became an easy decision to recommend to the board that Martin was the man."
The Republic reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup under Jack Charlton on their maiden appearance in 1990 but have failed to qualify since 2002.
Trapattoni, who was appointed manager in February 2008, guided the team to the finals of Euro 2012 but they lost all three matches in a difficult group with Spain, Italy and Croatia.
In World Cup 2014 qualifying they were beaten 6-1 at home by Germany and could only finish fourth in Group C, with 14 points from their 10 matches.


Roman remains have been discovered at the Kirkintilloch Town Hall site as work gets underway to renovate the 110 year-old building

Builders were working in the car park area when they discovered five items including a Roman nail and a piece of pre-glaze Roman pottery.
Archaeologists believe the artefacts may date back to 160AD or earlier.
The newly renovated town hall is due to open next summer and will include a heritage display and event space.
Support has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other external funders.
So far, work has taken place to excavate the car park site, and to create retaining walls in the basement and new parking.
Council Leader Rhondda Geekie said: "I was fascinated to hear about the Roman nail, pottery and other items discovered below the foundations of the car park. It's a timely reminder of just how much history surrounds and enriches East Dunbartonshire."


Star Wars actor John Boyega was among hundreds of people forced to evacuate the Old Vic theatre in central London due to a bomb threat.

The venue near Waterloo was evacuated along with nearby pubs and restaurants after the security alert was raised.
On social media, theatregoers said they and the cast had been moved to the nearby Imperial War Museum gardens.
Police said the incident was now over. Boyega is playing the lead role in the play Woyzeck at the theatre.
The Old Vic had earlier tweeted: "We have been evacuated as a precaution; audience safety is our priority. We are liaising with the Met Police."
A Met Police spokeswoman said it had been called at about 14:30 BST to a report of a security alert at the theatre and a decision was taken to evacuate the building.
About two hours later the police force said the incident was "not suspicious".
Boyega is best known for playing Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh film in the Star Wars series.
In the current production at the Old Vic, he plays a young British soldier in 1980s Berlin during the Cold War and his performance has been widely praised by theatre critics.
The UK terrorism threat level was earlier reduced from critical to severe earlier, five days after the Manchester Arena attack but increased security remains in place at events across the country.


Shares in Boeing rose 4% after the plane maker said it would deliver more aircraft than expected this year and raised its profit outlook.

The company said it would deliver between 745 and 750 commercial planes, up from an earlier estimate of 740 to 745 - but below last year's 762.
Boeing said demand for aircraft remained strong and that efforts to boost profitability were on track.
Net profit for the three months to September rose by a third to $2.3bn.
However, revenues slipped 7.5% to $23.9bn.
Profit and revenue also fell in Boeing's defence business, partly due to the discontinued C-17 transport plane.
Shares rose $5.17 to $144.19 in afternoon trading in New York. JP Morgan analyst Seth Seifman said he did not expect the stock was "set up to run away".
The deferred production cost balance for the 787 Dreamliner - a measure of manufacturing costs that are yet to be recouped by sales - fell about $150m in the quarter to $27.5bn, reflecting the fact that the jet is now profitable by some accounting measures.
The balance peaked at $28.7bn in the first quarter and has since declined.
A note from analysts at Jefferies praised Boeing for keeping 787 costs under control and said its outlook "seems bright".
Chief financial officer Greg Smith said Boeing expected revenues to be flat to "slightly down" next year following a transition to a new variant of the 777 twin-aisle plane.
Boeing plans to cut production of the 777 to seven a month next year from 8.3 - and many experts expect a further cut to five a month due to slow sales and the arrival of the new 777X.
Chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said Boeing would take more time to decide whether such a cut was needed.
Meanwhile, its European rival Airbus has maintained its full-year outlook despite reporting a 21% drop in third quarter profits before interest, tax and other charges to â‚¬731m (Â£652m).
The company aimed to deliver "more than 670 planes" this year, but the tally to September was only 462.
Finance director Harald Wilhelm admitted there remained much still to do to hit the target, but that Airbus was counting on suppliers to help them do so.
Chief executive Tom Enders said the number of deliveries to September "reflects the heavily back-loaded aircraft delivery schedule, ongoing production ramp-up and transition to new versions of our A320 and A330 aircraft".
He said Airbus had a backlog of more than 6,700 aircraft, reflecting "rather healthy" demand for commercial planes.
The figures comes as the aerospace group embarks on a massive restructuring programme in a bid to cut costs.