Updated – 1:40pm Monday: Police say investigations have determined there was “no credible threat to the public” after a suspicious package with radioactive stickers was left on the top of a fuel pump at a north-west Tasmanian service station.
“Officers from Wynyard and Burnie stations, plus specialist resources of the Bomb Response Unit, attended the scene today,” a police spokesperson said.
“The suspect article was a cardboard box left near a fuel bowser.”
“Police cordoned off the business on Inglis Street about 10.35am, with the public directed to keep clear while investigations were conducted.”
Police say the scene was declared clear around 1pm and officers have taken the item into their possession.
Earlier: Tasmania Police’s bomb squad has been called to a service station in Wynyard after a suspicious package was found sitting on top of a fuel pump.
The incident unfolded at the Tas Petroleum site on Inglis Street shortly before 11am today.
Tas Petroleum general manager Nathan Thurlow told Pulse a box “with a radioactive sticker” on it was left on one of the pumps, leading to police forcing the site to be shut down.
Thurlow said the service station cannot reopen until the bomb squad has cleared it.
He said police told him a bomb squad member was travelling from somewhere on the north-west coast, while another member who was on leave was also being called in.
Thurlow said he has never seen or heard of such an event occuring at a Tasmanian fuel station.
The forced closure is expected to hit both commercial and retail customers in the area.
“It will affect our commercial customers and will affect the retail trade in the Wynyard region,” Thurlow said.
He said his company is taking the matter seriously, but the response frustrated him, given other crimes affecting his business had gone largely ignored.
“We had $100,000 worth of diesel stolen in Hobart in recent times and we couldn’t manage to get any resources to actively pursue that case yet they’re happy to throw taxpayers money at [this]” he said.
Police have asked people “to avoid the area until further notice”.
“Police are currently in attendance at an un-staffed fuel outlet on Inglis Street at Wynyard,” a Tasmania Police spokesperson said.
“The outlet has been closed as a precaution following a report of an unattended package.”
