‘Mentally ill’ teenage boy attempts to blow up Aberdeen police station

[NewWorldRecord]

‘Mentally ill’ teenage boy attempts to blow up Aberdeen police station

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 29 October, 2014, 9:06am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 29 October, 2014, 3:13pm

Eddie Lee and Danny Mok

Explosive material found by police at the boy's flat. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A teenage boy who attempted to set off powerful homemade explosives at Aberdeen police station last night has a history of mental illness, police said.

Police said the 15-year-old boy was carrying a box when he entered the report room at 7pm and announced he was going to let off an explosive device.

The boy was quickly subdued by officers after he produced a test tube full of white powder and a lighter, telling officers that he did not want to live any longer. No one was injured.

The bomb squad was called in and the area was evacuated. Police later took the teenager to his flat at Wah On House on the Wah Fu Estate in Southern District, where objects believed to be explosives were seized and destroyed.

Dozens of residents were evacuated when bomb disposal officers detonated the cache.

A total of five test tubes, weighing between 100 grams and 200 grams, were in the box the boy carried to the police station.

Police said the white powder found in the test tubes was triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which is a primary high explosive susceptible to heat.

“He said he learned bomb-making techniques from books,” Assistant Aberdeen Divisional Commander (Operations) Maggie Fung Ka-ying said at a press briefing.

She said the motive for the foiled attack was not yet known.

Telephone lines and reporting services at Aberdeen Police Station were temporarily suspended because of the incident. They were reopened before midnight.

Police have not revealed the boy's identity.