Bomb left in Eastgate Mall

Bomb left in Eastgate Mall
2011-11-28 14:25




Eastgate evacuated


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Lauren Hess, News24
Johannesburg
- An explosive device was left outside a jewellery store in Eastgate Mall on Monday, police confirmed to News24.

Captain Katlego Mogale said that the Johannesburg mall was evacuated after police received a phone call about a “suspicious case” which was left in front of a jewellery store.

The bomb disposal unit and sniffer dogs were sent in and it was found that there was in fact a bomb inside the briefcase, Mogale said.

EWN quoted the mall's management as saying that police had detonated the device, and that was the explosion people heard.

Mogale told News24 that the jewellery shop had received a “letter” warning of the explosive device.

Shoppers at the mall tweeted that they also saw a man running on the roof while police went after him and a helicopter circled overhead.

- Are you there? Send us your eyewitness accounts

- News24

Related to the above story


Device at Eastgate not a bomb
November 29 2011 at 11:58am
By Theresa Taylor and Thandi Skade


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INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Staff wait outside Eastgate Mall following a bomb threat at the shopping centre.

A device uncovered outside a store at Eastgate Mall was not a bomb, police said last night.

Gauteng police chief General Mzwandile Petros told Talk Radio 702 that the device had been a box with wires.

He said the police’s bomb squad had used a type of explosive to “neutralise” the device.

On Monday afternoon, police said they had detonated a bomb in a controlled explosion.

About 11am, Bedfordview police were alerted to a suspicious-looking package in the mall and alerted the dog and bomb disposal units.

Police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said a shop in the mall, believed to have been a jewellery store, had received a letter threatening them with a bomb and had then alerted security when they noticed a suspect suitcase outside the store.

The package was removed from under the escalator outside Bellagio Jewellers, but the owner denied receiving a letter and said it was the centre’s management who had alerted authorities.

Customers and staff were then evacuated from the premises. - The Star