Investigators yesterday managed to extract the SIM card which failed to detonate the explosive device found attached to a car dealer’s vehicle on Thursday evening, Times of Malta has learnt.

The SIM card, which investigators managed to extract intact, will prove “crucial” in trying to establish who was behind the car bomb.

The card activated but failed to trigger the bomb found attached to a Mitsubishi Pajero that was parked in St Anthony’s Street, Fgura, at around 7pm on Thursday.

The bomb looked like a homemade job, and there were evident mistakes in the electronics

Members of the AFM’s Bomb Disposal Unit were on site to dismantle the bomb and remove it safely. They had been alerted after what was described as a “strange noise” was heard.

Sources said that the car belonged to Mario Scicluna, a Gozitan car dealer from Sannat, who resides in Fgura.

The vehicle was taken by the police for further inspection.

The sources have said that Mr Scicluna is known to the police, but his crimes were “not major”, according to the sources. Foreign experts have not yet been called in as they were in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder on October 16 last year. This was the first car bomb since then.

Had it gone off, it would have been the seventh car bombing since the beginning of 2016.

Sources said the bomb looked like a “homemade job”, and there were evident mistakes in the electronics which made it destined to fail.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera is heading the inquiry with the help of a number of experts she has appointed.

The government said in a statement that it was committed to finding the perpetrators behind the crime.