Sydney bomb squad 'defusing device on teenager'
Australian bomb squad officers were on Wednesday working to defuse a ‘suspicious device’ at a Sydney house that media reports said was strapped around the neck of a terrified teenager.
Police were alerted by an 18-year-old schoolgirl, said to be a member of one of the city's wealthiest families, in the exclusive suburb of Mosman and were in the house, with fire crews and paramedics on standby.
Police said they were treating the device as live until they knew otherwise.
The ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ said a balaclava-clad man entered the house in the afternoon and placed the device on the girl, although police would not confirm reports it was strapped to her.
Other reports said a ransom note was attached to her neck and it was a case of extortion, with the ‘Sydney Daily Telegraph’ citing a senior police officer referring to the device as a ‘collar bomb’.
"There's a device in the house in the vicinity of the young woman. That device is still being examined as we speak," Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch told reporters.
"We are treating the device as live until we know otherwise.”
"All I can say about the device is we are working very hard to find out what it is and, equally importantly, what it isn't."
Murdoch described the incident as ‘very sensitive’.
"We need to play our cards pretty close to our chest at this point," he said, adding that the girl was dealing with the situation well.
"We've got our specialist police with her, constantly reassuring her, talking to her," he said, with the girl's parents being cared for by police.
Investigations were being headed by the robbery and serious crimes squad, which also deals with extortion attempts.
Mosman is a wealthy suburb on Sydney's lower north shore lined with million dollar homes.
The street where the incident was playing out is also reportedly home to racing identity Gai Waterhouse and ex-Australian rugby stars Phil Kearns and John Eales.
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