Australian bomb squad officers are working to defuse a suspicious device found at a home in a wealthy suburb of Sydney, police have said. Surrounding streets have been closed to traffic and emergency services rushed to the scene.
New South Wales police said in a statement that an 18-year-old woman called them to the house in Mosman, on Sydney's north shore, at around 2.30pm Australian time and that the bomb squad was in the process of examining the device.
Reports that a "collar bomb" had been strapped to the woman by someone else could not be immediately confirmed. But police told the Associated Press the incident was "not being treated as self-harm".
Asked by the Australian Daily Telegraph whether the girl could move away from the device, Mark Murdoch, an assistant police commissioner, was quoted as saying: "No, she can't get away from it."
"I can't confirm whether it is strapped to the woman involved but she is still in the vicinity of the device," he said. The paper quoted an unnamed police officer as describing the device as a "collar bomb" and the incident as an extortion attempt. This could not be independently confirmed.
The house is in Burrawong Avenue, an exclusive road full of multi-million dollar properties including one belonging to the Scottish-born horse trainer Gai Waterhouse. Homes near the house involved have been evacuated.
Police said defusing the device demanded "a high level of skill and must be meticulous".
Lizzy Davies @'The Guardian'
UPDATE
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