Package found at Qormi was explosive device

Last updated: 4.45 p.m.

Explosives experts have confirmed that a package found in Qormi this afternoon was an improvised explosive device with electrical components connected to it.

The device was found at Tal-Handaq, Qormi, near a disused factory at about 12.30 p.m. It had wires and a clock attached.

The area was immediately closed off. Nearby residents were evacuated and not allowed to return home until the road was reopened just after 4.30 p.m. when the device was safely removed by the AFM's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit.

Sources said the explosive material did not appear to be TNT - which was the material used in the bomb placed at the Transport Malta office last week. Further analyses are under way and the experts are investigating if there are similarities to Thursday's bomb.

The bomb would have been effective up to 100 metres had it exploded.

Prior to removing the device, the EOD officers took material from the package and tested it in a laboratory.

Journalists were kept a considerable distance away while the investigations on site.

A medical team and firemen are also on the scene.

A neighbour, Mary Bongailas, told timesofmalta.com that she had been out shopping, and when she was returning home at about 12.45 who was stopped at the end of her street and told she could not proceed further because a bomb had been discovered.

Another neighbour said she learned about the discovery while at work and rushed home to check on her family. All had been evacuated.