VOLATILE WEAPON
POLICE are believed to be investigating whether the explosive found beside a Cairns highway was the same highly volatile substance that maimed a teenage boy at Ipswich.
The Bruce Highway was shut for seven hours at Edmonton on Wednesday after road workers found a suspicious-looking device beside the road about 11.45am.
The discovery caused huge traffic delays, while expert police examined the device before it was eventually buried and detonated.
It is understood police believe the substance involved may be the same as that used in a homemade golf ball bomb, which blew an Ipswich teenager’s hands off in 2013.
Police believe it could have been thrown off the highway by a passing motorist, although they have yet to track down whoever was responsible.
The device was described as being about the size of a torch with a wick attached.
Questions have been raised about why it took police seven hours to identify and dispose of the item.
But senior officers said the item posed a serious risk to public safety and could have proven lethal to anyone within a 50m radius if it had exploded.
“When we’re dealing with unknowns we have to err on the side of caution,” Far North police Insp Rhys Newton said.
“We sympathise with the community and (the delays) would have been a concern but the problem with this is someone has created a device and left it on the side of the road.
“Within 50m there was a lethal risk ... and that took in the southbound side of the highway and the railway.”
Insp Newton said there would be a debriefing into the response, including liaising with the Department of Transport and Main Roads and the Cairns Regional Council.
“There is always the opportunity to improve,” he said.
“No one was hurt and that is the main thing for us.”
Insp Newton said, once the Cairns-based bomb experts, known as the Explosive Ordnance Response Team, were called to the scene, they used special technology to X-ray and analyse the device.
“We were making some assessments of the materials and nine times out of 10 it comes up as inert and it’s dealt with like a piece of paper,” he said.
“This time (was different) and that keeps us on full alert in the interest of community safety.”
Road diversions were put in place during the motoring chaos, although Sen-Sgt James Coate said some motorists were trying various back roads to find a quicker way through.
He said there were many reports of people getting lost and causing further disruptions.