Australian police have charged a 31-year-old man after he allegedly threw a homemade explosive device packed with nails and ball bearings into a crowd of thousands at an Indigenous rights rally on Australia Day.
Police said on Tuesday that the man removed the device from his bag and threw it from an elevated walkway into a gathering of more than 2,000 people in Perth, Western Australia, during Monday’s demonstration.
The device did not detonate, and no one was injured.
A member of the public alerted officers, who quickly detained the suspect and called in bomb response specialists.
Homemade improvised explosive
The Western Australia Police Force said the device was confirmed to be a homemade improvised explosive containing volatile and potentially explosive chemicals, with nails and metal ball bearings attached to its exterior.
A subsequent search of the man’s home allegedly uncovered chemicals and materials consistent with the manufacture of homemade explosives, police said.
The suspect was charged with attempting to cause harm and with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.
Thousands had gathered to protest on Australia’s national holiday, which marks the 1788 arrival of the British First Fleet in Sydney Harbour and is widely criticised by Indigenous Australians as a symbol of colonisation and dispossession.
