{"id":440468,"date":"2026-01-27T10:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440468\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:17:13","slug":"invasion-day-explosive-device-hidden-inside-disney-frozen-sock-witness-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440468\/","title":{"rendered":"Invasion Day ‘explosive’ device hidden inside Disney Frozen sock, witness says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A homemade “fragment bomb” thrown into a crowd at a Perth Invasion Day rally yesterday was hidden in a child’s Disney-themed sock, according to a woman who picked it up.<\/p>\n

Police alleged the device was packed with chemicals and designed to explode on impact, but it did not detonate.<\/p>\n

It was thrown from a shopping centre balcony into the crowd, causing police to evacuate up to 2,500 people who they said had gathered for the January 26 event in central Perth.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police shut down parts of Perth’s CBD following the threat to the Invasion Day rally. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

The ABC has spoken to a rally attendee who said she picked up the device and gave it to the police.<\/p>\n

‘Sailed through the air’<\/p>\n

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said on Tuesday afternoon she was still in shock.<\/p>\n

“My colleague and I were standing pretty close to the stage \u2026 there were about three or four girls standing about a half a metre in front of us \u2026 and all of a sudden this object kind of sailed through the air,” she told ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

\"Hundreds<\/p>\n

The crowd in Perth before the device was thrown. (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n

“It hit one of the girls on the leg and then landed on the ground.<\/p>\n

“It was alarming so I immediately looked up to see where it had come from and then I looked at the object.<\/p>\n

“It was an Elsa sock \u2014 the Frozen character Elsa \u2014 a kid sock, and inside it was stuff, I don’t know what, but I didn’t touch it.<\/p>\n

\"Characters<\/p>\n

Elsa (left) is a character from the popular Disney movie Frozen. (Facebook: Frozen)<\/p>\n

“There was no smouldering, nothing, but it just seemed odd.”<\/p>\n

The woman said she had a feeling the object was “dangerous”.<\/p>\n

“It was strange that someone would through an object in the middle of the crowd,” she said.<\/p>\n

“With everything that’s happening at the moment, I just thought … weird.”Police delay alleged<\/p>\n

The woman said she was worried someone might kick or step on the object so she picked it up and took it to the nearest police officers.<\/p>\n

“I picked it up very cautiously and held it at arm’s length from myself,” she said.<\/p>\n

“What I did notice was it was quite heavy \u2026 I kind of peered into it and then looked away, but it kind of looked like glass and it looked like [it had] almost tablet capsules around it, I don’t know how else to describe it. It was weird.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police searched a suspect’s home in the hours after the incident.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

The woman said the officers asked her to describe the person she thought had thrown the device before telling her to leave it with them.<\/p>\n

She said it was not until she got home that she realised she had held the explosive device.<\/p>\n

“I told my husband about it and he [opened] a news article and I realised \u2018oh, I was holding said device\u2019 which is so strange.”<\/p>\n

Potential to kill: police<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Col Blanch described the device as a “fragment bomb”.<\/p>\n

\"WA<\/p>\n

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch speaks to media about the rally on Tuesday. (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

“We’re still waiting for full chemical analysis, but I can confirm the preliminary tests showed that there were three compounds involved,” he told ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

“We are able to say that it is an explosive device, we will call this an improvised explosive device.<\/p>\n

“It had the potential to explode and injure many people or kill them.<\/p>\n

The commissioner added that the device contained liquid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Now if that liquid or the compounds ignited, what was wrapped around the container was screws \u2014 nails and ball bearings, a combination of them \u2014 and if it had of ignited and exploded then those nails and ball bearings would have no doubt been ejected at very high rate of speed.”<\/p>\n

A man faced court today in relation to the incident.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

‘Ashamed and appalled’<\/p>\n

At about 1pm local time on Monday, a group of uniformed police officers approached the speakers’ stage.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police interrupted the crowd and moved people back from the stage following a “threat”. (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n

“One of the marshalls said there was somebody acting suspicious \u2026 the police came up on stage, they told us we are getting evacuated because there’s a bomb scare,” rally organiser Fabian Yarran told ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

The Noongar elder said he was “ashamed and appalled” by the alleged incident.<\/p>\n

“It was a day that we were mourning, and we just wanted to reflect on the past,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It took everyone by surprise, but we had to evacuate.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Forrest Place in Perth was emptied after the device was discovered.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

The area was cordoned off and streets were closed for two hours while police swept the area for any other potential threats, and reopened about 3pm.<\/p>\n

The rally continued down the Murray Street mall.<\/p>\n

Delay criticism<\/p>\n

The woman who picked up the device said there was a “lag time” between its landing on the ground and the evacuation being called, something other witnesses have corroborated.<\/p>\n

“The nonchalance of the police when I handed it to them, I did feel that was strange,” she said.<\/p>\n

Perth’s Invasion Day gathering turns to chaos<\/a><\/p>\n

Premier Roger Cook says the way an orderly protest was targeted “runs against the very heart of what it means to be Australian”. So what really happened in Perth’s CBD on Australia Day?\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I mean obviously they didn’t know what it was either. But there was no alarm from the police I handed it over to, and he didn’t attempt to take my contact details.”<\/p>\n

Commissioner Blanch said he had some of the “early criticisms” about the police response.<\/p>\n

“But the reality is you don’t want to yell out ‘bomb” because everyone will be running in circles and it won’t be an orderly evacuation.<\/p>\n

“We wanted it controlled, we wanted it managed, and we used the organisers to do it.”<\/p>\n

Politician also a witness<\/p>\n

Labor MP Dave Kelly also said he witnessed the device being thrown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it coming through the air and landing among people listening to the speeches,\u201d he said on social media.<\/p>\n

“I saw the look on the face of a young woman who had the device drop at her feet. I wonder how she feels today.”\"Dave<\/p>\n

Dave Kelly said he witnessed the incident in Forrest Place. (ABC News: Jon Sambell)<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly said he felt angry, reflecting on the event 24 hours later.<\/p>\n

He said he had noticed an increase in \u201cnasty\u201d social media comments targeting indigenous Australians in the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all need to show each other more respect and more compassion, not less. Our leaders need to dial down the rhetoric and refrain from using racial or ethnic groups as punching bags,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“Attacking Indigenous Australians, whether physically or culturally, should never be okay.”Loading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homemade “fragment bomb” thrown into a crowd at a Perth Invasion Day rally yesterday was hidden in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[229213,218616,229208,57356,43,228214,229209,44,17174,17173,229210,86,41,39,42,40,229212,229211,45,7977,180256],"class_list":["post-440468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-disney-news","tag-explosive-device","tag-explosive-device-thrown-into-crowd-at-invasion-day","tag-frozen","tag-headlines","tag-invasion-day","tag-man-charged-over-invasion-day-explosive-device","tag-news","tag-news-perth","tag-news-wa","tag-perth-invasion-day","tag-perth-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-bomb-scare","tag-wa-invasion-day-bomb","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-police","tag-waalert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}