Police Special Forces and the bomb squad of the Coast Guard were dispatched yesterday evening to defuse an improvised explosive device at a bus stop in a Reykjavík suburb. Police has no information on who made the bomb, a home-made pipe bomb. The bomb is not believed to be connected to terrorism.
Police closed down street
Yesterday's bomb was discovered at seven in the evening by a young man who lives next to the bus stop was waiting for the bus. The bomb was lying on the bus stop bench, as if someone had just forgotten it there
At first I didn't realize what this thing was, so I picked it up and held it. It was very heavy, and then I noticed the fuse, and immediately put the thing down, the man told the local news site Vísir. He immediately called the police.
I waited by the bus stop until the cops showed up and asked me about this thing. Then I just went back in, and they stood around for 20 minutes, until the Special Forces arrived, and they looked at the bomb. But then they were joined by the Bomb Squad, which closed down the street.
An epidemic of bomb-making
Police in the Metropolitan area has on numerous occasions intervened where teenagers have built and exploded home-made pipe bombs. Kópavogur, the suburb where the bomb was discovered, was home to an epidemic of pipe-bomb making by teenagers in the 1990s. The teenagers, primarily boys in their early teens, used the bombs to blow up trash cans and mailboxes. Some of these bombings resulted in injuries to the bomb-makers. Most accidents have taken place when bombs exploded prematurely during their assembly.
The bombs are made by packing powder from fireworks into iron a tightly sealed section of pipe. By packing explosives into a tightly sealed pipe the bombs can produce a relatively large and powerful explosion using low explosives. The shrapnel created by the blast can be lethal.
Police Special Forces and the bomb squad of the Coast Guard were dispatched yesterday evening to defuse an improvised explosive device at a bus stop in a Reykjavík suburb. Police has no information on who made the bomb, a home-made pipe bomb. The bomb is not believed to be connected to terrorism.
Police closed down street
Yesterday's bomb was discovered at seven in the evening by a young man who lives next to the bus stop was waiting for the bus. The bomb was lying on the bus stop bench, as if someone had just forgotten it there
At first I didn't realize what this thing was, so I picked it up and held it. It was very heavy, and then I noticed the fuse, and immediately put the thing down, the man told the local news site Vísir. He immediately called the police.
I waited by the bus stop until the cops showed up and asked me about this thing. Then I just went back in, and they stood around for 20 minutes, until the Special Forces arrived, and they looked at the bomb. But then they were joined by the Bomb Squad, which closed down the street.
An epidemic of bomb-making
Police in the Metropolitan area has on numerous occasions intervened where teenagers have built and exploded home-made pipe bombs. Kópavogur, the suburb where the bomb was discovered, was home to an epidemic of pipe-bomb making by teenagers in the 1990s. The teenagers, primarily boys in their early teens, used the bombs to blow up trash cans and mailboxes. Some of these bombings resulted in injuries to the bomb-makers. Most accidents have taken place when bombs exploded prematurely during their assembly.
The bombs are made by packing powder from fireworks into iron a tightly sealed section of pipe. By packing explosives into a tightly sealed pipe the bombs can produce a relatively large and powerful explosion using low explosives. The shrapnel created by the blast can be lethal.
