Tradies make alarming find in backyard during home extension
The worrying package was found on a Perth home building site.
Two Perth tradies, making headway on the foundations of a house extension, got more than they bargained for after digging up a suspicious item in the city’s south.
The pair were on the job in South Lake on Tuesday morning when they made the explosive discovery in the yard of a property on South Lake Drive, as reported by 9 News.
“[We] just dug up a two litre bottle that had been cut in half and found this packaging in it that been fully wrapped with duct tape and a bag,” subcontractor Brent Gooderson told the news outlet. “We unwrapped the last layer and there was a little silver cylinder there that said 'explosive' on it.”
Old detonator contained explosives
After chucking the package in the skip bin, the construction workers called the police who brought in the bomb squad to check over the item.
They confirmed that it was a form of detonator used to trigger an explosive device, often used in places like the mines, and could have been deadly.
"These items do contain a very small amount of explosive so while in this instance there was no danger to the surrounding area in general, any explosion could have seriously injured the person holding it," a Western Australia Police spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia on Wednesday morning.
"While it is unlikely that such an unplanned explosion would have been triggered, given the age and degraded condition of the items they could be more unstable."
The spokesperson said that anyone who comes across an item that could be an explosive, should not touch or move the item but call police on 131 444.
Search continues for missing radioactive capsule
Meanwhile the race is on to find a highly radioactive capsule, lost somewhere on a 1,400 kilometre stretch of Western Australia.
The capsule was part of a device believed to have fallen off a truck, contracted by Rio Tinto, between a mine site in the Pilbara and the city of Perth on January 10, 9News reported.
At just 8mm by 6mm, crews are searching for a needle in a haystack that has the ability to emit dangerous amounts of radiation equivalent to receiving 10 X-rays in an hour.
“We are taking this incident very seriously,” Rio Tinto said in a statement. “We recognise this is clearly very concerning and are sorry for the alarm it has caused in the Western Australian community.”
The company added that it has launched its own investigation to determine how the capsule was lost in transit.
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