Police are looking for three men believed to have placed a home-made bomb packed with a kilo of explosive material under a Toyota pickup on Monday night.

The army’s bomb disposal unit defused the bomb that had been expertly placed under the grey truck belonging to Pawlu Degabriele, parked outside his flat in 14th December 1945 Street in Fgura.

The bomb consisted of three welded metal cylinders heavily packed with explosive powder, sources said. It is believed the powder is used in the manufacture of fireworks.

The three cylinders were attached with wires to a mobile phone. The sources said the bomb would have been triggered by a person making a call to the mobile phone attached to the bomb, sparking a powerful blast.

Not only would the explosion have destroyed the pickup but it would injured passers-by because of shrapnel.

The sources said a man spotted two hooded men next to the truck at about 2.30am and immediately sent Mr Degabriele a text message. However, Mr Degabriele only saw it in the morning and went outside to check his car. Once he saw the bomb, he called the police at about 7.30am.

 

The area was immediately cordoned off and the surrounding buildings were evacuated. Once the explosive ordnance division arrived on site, a soldier wearing heavy protective gear used a robot to examine the bomb.

It was detonated with two powerful jets of water, then retrieved by army personnel and taken to the army’s Pembroke ranges.

The police have taken footage from a CCTV camera positioned outside Mr Degabriele’s house which, the sources said, showed two men, with hoods covering their heads, next to his car. At one point, the hood of one man dropped, exposing his face. It is believed there was a third man, waiting in a getaway car.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.