A 31-year-old man has been charged after a homemade device police said was packed with chemicals and designed to explode on impact was thrown into a crowd of people at an Invasion Day rally in central Perth.
Police yesterday evacuated a crowd of peaceful rally attendees about an hour into the protest at Forrest Place, in Perth’s CBD, moving people away from the main stage area.
“You need to move. Your safety is paramount,” an officer told the gathering.
Crowds were moved away from the stage by police when the Invasion Day rally was interrupted. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch later told journalists a device had been found near the main stage containing ball bearings, nails and liquid in a glass container.
A man from the northern Perth suburb of Warwick is due to face court later today after spending the night in police custody.
Police searched a home in Warwick as part of their investigation into an incident at an Invasion Day rally in Perth. (ABC News)
He is charged with intent to do harm in such a way as to endanger life, health or safety, and with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.Â
Police allege he “removed an item from his bag and threw it into the crowd from a first-floor walkway before fleeing the scene.”
Police said about 2,500 people were present in the area at the time.
Device ‘designed to explode’
Commissioner Blanch said it will be alleged the device was designed to explode upon impact.
“Last night we had the device taken to our forensics unit and we also had our bomb response unit look at the device and sample the device,” he told Nine Entertainment’s 6PR.
“So we can say at this time with preliminary testing, the liquid was an explosive liquid, in fact there were multiple liquid compounds.
Col Blanch says police will allege the device was designed to explode on impact. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)
“We will allege that, that device was designed to explode upon impact but for reasons not yet known, it didn’t.”
He said police will allege the man reportedly “sought to ignite a fuse .. but for whatever reason it hasn’t lit and it hasn’t detonated but it is explosive compounds and it did contain the ball bearings and the screws and or nails”.
Commissioner Col Blanch thanked rally organisers for their cooperation in helping evacuate attendees. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
“It was compound chemicals that would, when detonated, have caused nails and ball bearings to eject at a high rate of speed causing injury to people, that will be our allegations that we’ll put forward,” he said.
“Suffice to say, that device — the item, the bomb or IED, whatever people want to call it — was destructive to human injury and life.”
Police interrupted the crowd and moved people back from the stage following a “threat”. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
He said police were alerted to the man by members of the public, and he was not previously known to police.
Counter terrorism police called in
Police spent hours searching the man’s home yesterday, with forensic teams present as well as officers in camouflage gear.
Officers allege they found “a combination of chemicals and materials consistent with the manufacture of homemade explosives”.
Tactical police outside the man’s house in Warwick. (ABC News)
“We’re in the process of deconstructing the device, downloading his electronic devices, interviewing him, probably on multiple occasions, so there may be more charges forthcoming,” the commissioner said.
“If there are going to be other charges forthcoming we’re going to have to collect additional evidence as far as motivation, ideologies or anything else but at this stage we don’t have that.”
He said Australian Federal Police, ASIO and the national Joint Counter Terrorism Team had been assisting the inquiry.
Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been briefed on the incident, the ABC has been told.
Police surged the rally as the incident unfolded yesterday, warning people to leave the area and not panic.
Police closed off parts of the CBD as the threat was assessed. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
Large sections of Perth’s CBD were cordoned off for about two hours as police kept people away from Forrest Place, which is in the heart of the city’s shopping district.
Device ‘came out of nowhere’
Rally attendee Luisa Mitchell recalled the device landing in front of her.
“We were standing right at the front of the plaza, right near the stage,” she told the ABC.
“It just came out of nowhere. There was basically a small device. It wasn’t very big at all, landed directly in front of us and hit the girl’s leg standing in front of us.
“She kind of yelped and jumped aside and it made a small white, like, cloud of smoke.”
Luisa Mitchell says the device landed in front of her as she attended the Invasion Day rally in Perth. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
Ms Mitchell said they waited a few minutes before her colleague picked up the device and handed it into police.
“We took it over to the nearest police officer,” she said.
“We walked back into the main audience and listened for the next 20 minutes or so. It was at that point that the police then came onto the stage.”
WA police moved people out of Forrest Place as the incident happened. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
A group of uniformed officers approached the stage, which prompted rally speaker, Noongar Elder Herbet Bropho, to urge the crowd to move away because of the threat.
Ms Mitchell said it was a chaotic scene compounded by what she believed was a lack of communication from the police.
“It wasn’t until afterwards that I thought, wow, something could have happened to myself, and also the people around me,” she said.
“There was an elderly Aboriginal lady in a wheelchair right next to me where it happened and I just, you know, shudder to think of what could have happened.
“It was a pretty chilling experience.”Neighbour in disbelief
Andy Holler lives in the same neighbourhood in Warwick as the house which police searched overnight and was surprised to hear charges had been laid.
“It’s all very quiet here and everybody’s peaceful, it’s a very simple community,” he said.
Andy Holler says the community is a convivial and peaceful one. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
“We have gatherings here every month at least once down on the street and get on very well.
“I don’t think people are scared, it’s just disbelief really more than anything else.”
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