Cairns fruit sabotaged Police confirm needle found in banana at Redlynch shop

POLICE have started investigating the case of a needle found in a banana at a Redlynch supermarket that sparked panic across Cairns.

Warnings on Facebook surfaced on Wednesday night about a young girl finding the metal object after biting into a piece of fruit bought from Red- lynch Woolworths.

Police have since confirmed reports of a needle being found inside a banana bought at a Cairns store.

A Woolworths spokesman said the company was aware of the customer report and understood police were investigating.

“The details have been referred to the authorities leading the response to this matter and we’ll consult with them on the next steps,” he said.

Division 6 councillor Linda Cooper said she hoped the isolated incident didn’t put people off buying fruit from Redlynch supermarkets.

“Firstly, people don’t need to be frightened. These (fruit scares) are isolated cases,” she said.

“I think the message is that if there are copycats and these things happening on the farms, then unfortunately a lot of farmers are going to be massively impacted by the stupidshouldn’t ity of this.” She said avoiding buying fruit would hurt the Far Northern economy.

“I come from a farming background, so know this can be very debilitating, particularly for banana farmers, who have had some pretty serious issues over the last couple of years,” she said. “But it stop you from actually buying the fruit … this is the sort of fruit that you can cut up pretty easily and still enjoy eating it.

“I think people need to be aware, but it shouldn’t actually scare them.”

Investigations into the banana sabotage are continuing.