Spook halts a state of emergency (5,8)
I believe the answer is:
panic stations
'state of emergency' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'spook halts a' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for panic stations that I've seen before include "(Humorous) alarm call" , "State of alarm (colloq.)" , "Where everyone is scared and frenetic" , "state of emergency" , "alarming situation" .)