{"id":476547,"date":"2026-02-13T04:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476547\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:09:07","slug":"detonated-homemade-explosive-found-on-oval-in-south-canberra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476547\/","title":{"rendered":"Detonated homemade explosive found on oval in south Canberra"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACT Policing is calling for information after a homemade explosive was detonated in south Canberra.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Donna Hofmeier said police received multiple reports of a loud explosion at Holder Oval about 5am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Just before 10am, a member of the public discovered a suspicious item on the oval.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Hofmeier said the bomb team examined the item, which is about 15 centimetres long, and that it was seized by forensics for examination.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Members of the public who see any suspicious items should contact police immediately. (Supplied: ACT Policing)<\/p>\n

“We believe it was homemade,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing funny about leaving explosive devices in public where they can hurt others.<\/p>\n

“It may be a prank and it still could hurt someone at some stage.<\/p>\n

“We’re treating this really seriously.”<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Hofmeier said police did not believe the explosive was linked to 15 explosive devices, including pipe bombs, which were discovered near Lake Ginninderra in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forty-one-year-old Damien Paul O’Brien was arrested on January 17 in relation to those devices and has been in custody since<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has pleaded not guilty to manufacturing the devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Donna Hofmeier says there is no ongoing threat to the community. (ABC News: Harry Frost)<\/p>\n

ACT Policing also received multiple reports of explosive devices located in the vicinity of Duffy between December 15 last year and January 15 this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Hofmeier did not rule out a connection between the Duffy and Holder incidents.<\/p>\n

“We’re certainly investigating those other devices that have been located,” she said.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Hofmeier said there was no ongoing threat to the community and urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n

“If anyone noticed any suspicious activity around Holder Oval around that time or has information about that device, we are urging them to call Crime Stoppers,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said there was “no evidence” of more explosives in the community but warned people to be cautious.<\/p>\n

“If it looks suspicious, don’t touch it. Leave it, call us. Certainly don’t pick it up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT Policing is calling for information after a homemade explosive was detonated in south Canberra. Detective Inspector Donna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,42182,29623,64,63,155458,242626,2667,37958,87205,242625,104700,219468,140988,242624,242623,44,29252,242622,159985],"class_list":["post-476547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-act","tag-act-policing","tag-afp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bomb","tag-bomb-squad","tag-canberra","tag-cctv","tag-device","tag-donna-hoffmeier","tag-explosion","tag-explosive","tag-holder","tag-holder-oval","tag-loud-bang","tag-news","tag-oval","tag-pipe-bomb","tag-witnesses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476547","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=476547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}