Device 'a very elaborate hoax'

Australian officers gather near a home in Sydney after reports of a bomb-like device being strapped to a teenager (AP)
12 April 2012

A suspicious device that had been attached to an Australian teenage girl's neck contained no explosives and appeared to be part of an elaborate hoax, police have said.

In a scene that could have been straight from a Hollywood thriller, bomb squad specialists worked for 10 horrifying hours to free 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver from a bomb-like device she said was chained to her neck by a man in disguise who entered her suburban Sydney home.

She was not hurt, and officials managed to free her.

New South Wales state police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said that specialists had determined the device contained no explosives.

Mr Murdoch said the man apparently had also left a threatening note in the house with specific demands that police would not describe.

"A very, very elaborate hoax as it turned out," Mr Murdoch. "But it was made and certainly gave the appearance of a legitimate improvised explosive device. We had to treat it seriously until we could prove otherwise and that's exactly what we did and that's why it took so long."

The assistant commissioner said the device had been attached to the girl "by a chain or something similar"m which took officers a long time to remove. He declined to describe the disguise the attacker wore.

The drama began on Wednesday afternoon in the upscale Sydney suburb of Mosman when the victim's family contacted police saying their daughter had been attacked and there was a strange device attached to her. Bomb technicians, negotiators and detectives rushed to the scene. Nearby homes were evacuated, streets were closed and medical and fire crews waited nearby.

Police said they had no idea why Ms Pulver was targeted, but added that the attack did not appear to be random.

Ms Pulver was examined and released from a Sydney hospital on Thursday.

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