{"id":586061,"date":"2026-02-13T02:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/586061\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T02:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:41:13","slug":"detonated-homemade-explosive-found-on-oval-in-south-canberra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/586061\/","title":{"rendered":"Detonated homemade explosive found on oval in south Canberra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">ACT Policing is calling for information after a homemade explosive was detonated in south Canberra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Detective Inspector Donna Hofmeier said police received multiple reports of a loud explosion at Holder Oval about 5am on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Just before 10am, a member of the public discovered a suspicious item on the oval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">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<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The burnt out remains of what appears to be a homemade explosive.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ed3450fd84efc13d1d7d17afbd19f53e.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Members of the public who see any suspicious items should contact police immediately. (Supplied: ACT Policing)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;We believe it was homemade,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing funny about leaving explosive devices in public where they can hurt others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;It may be a prank and it still could hurt someone at some stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;We&#8217;re treating this really seriously.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Detective Inspector Hofmeier said police did not believe the explosive was linked to <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-01-16\/act-four-more-pipe-bombs-found-belconnen\/106236362\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106236362\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">15 explosive devices, including pipe bombs, which were discovered near Lake Ginninderra in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Forty-one-year-old <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-01-19\/man-who-allegedly-made-pipe-bombs-fronts-court\/106243948\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106243948\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Damien Paul O&#8217;Brien was arrested on January 17 in relation to those devices and has been in custody since<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He has <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-02-10\/man-accused-of-planting-pipe-bombs-in-canberra-pleads-not-guilty\/106325796\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106325796\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pleaded not guilty to manufacturing the devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A police woman in uniform\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/39161bfdcb238c26b99463cdc4f42cbb.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Detective Inspector Donna Hofmeier says there is no ongoing threat to the community. (ABC News: Harry Frost)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">ACT Policing also received <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-01-17\/act-what-we-know-about-pipe-bombs-found-around-canberra\/106238418\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106238418\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">multiple reports of explosive devices located in the vicinity of Duffy between December 15 last year and January 15 this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Detective Inspector Hofmeier did not rule out a connection between the Duffy and Holder incidents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;We&#8217;re certainly investigating those other devices that have been located,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Detective Inspector Hofmeier said there was no ongoing threat to the community and urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;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,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">She said there was &#8220;no evidence&#8221; of more explosives in the community but warned people to be cautious.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"EmphasisedText_quote__TE6kn\"><p>&#8220;If it looks suspicious, don&#8217;t touch it. Leave it, call us. Certainly don&#8217;t pick it up.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT Policing is calling for information after a homemade explosive was detonated in south Canberra. Detective Inspector Donna&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":586062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4746,207646,30310,4740,2587,33137,4745,9310,92747,253826,21885,29996,253822,253825,253824,50,6170,253823,7308],"class_list":["post-586061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-act","tag-act-policing","tag-afp","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"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116061018273565124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}