Acid bombs

By Kelly Yates
VANDALS caused havoc in Berwick, Narre Warren and Narre Warren North last week when they put home-made acid bombs in cars and letterboxes.
Several residents made calls to the Narre Warren police station on Monday and Tuesday night after hearing explosions in their streets.
Casey detectives charged six people in relation to two separate incidents involving acid bombs, and are warning residents about the dangers of the explosive devices.
Detective Senior Constable Paul Stow told the News a group of vandals spent two hours on Tuesday night setting off the acid bombs along Parkhill Drive, Avebury Drive and Ernst Wanke Road.
Police were forced to call in the bomb response unit to help detonate the devices.
Det Sen Const Stow said it was lucky no one was seriously injured as a result of the explosions, with one uniform police officer examined by paramedics on the night after feeling “dizzy” from the fumes.
Det Sen Const Stow described an acid bomb as being a “plastic bottle filled with an acid and a reacting base.”
He said the vandals had filled the bottles with the two substances.
“They then shake it up and the gas builds up pressure inside the sealed bottle and it explodes,” he said.
Two 18-year-old men, from Berwick and Cranbourne, a 17-year-old from Narre Warren and a 16-year-old Mount Martha youth were all charged with making and using an explosive device, and criminal damage.
The men have been bailed to appear at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 24 May, while the two youths have been bailed to the Dandenong Children’s Court on 24 June.
Det Sen Const Stow said the night before the group attack, police charged a 22-year-old man from Berwick and a Harkaway man, 20, with disorderly conduct in relation to making acid bombs in a vacant Narre Warren North paddock.
“It was out of the blue that we had back-to-back cases of people making and using these explosive devices,” he said.
Police say they are cracking down on the recent acid bomb trend.
“We are not taking acid bomb offences lightly. Anyone caught will get the full brunt of the law,” he said.
“Downloading the recipe from the internet might seem harmless but people need to be aware that it’s explosive material.”