Police across Australia are hunting for 3.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer missing from a storage depot amid fears the bomb-making ingredient could fall into terrorists' hands, a report said yesterday.
The Weekend Australian reported the fertilizer, which in the past has been used as a key ingredient in bombs such as the one that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia, is missing from an Adelaide storage depot in southern Australia.
"If this had been two or three years ago it probably would not have raised the same level of concern as today," South Australian state Assistant Police Commissioner Madeleine Glynn told the newspaper.
She said there were no immediate indications the chemical had been sold to criminals.
"However, it is important to establish the whereabouts of the material ... in the overall global and national efforts to combat crime and terrorism," she said.
The government is considering a nationwide ban on sales of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer widely used by farmers. Australia's largest supplier of ammonium nitrate said last week it was halting sales of the fertilizer because of terrorist fears.
The newspaper also said that Defense Minister Robert Hill this week admitted thousands of rounds of ammunition, hand grenades and plastic explosives have been stolen from Australia's defense forces in the past three years.
In a written response to a question from opposition lawmakers, Hill said it likely would never be known exactly how much ordnance had been taken because responsibility for monitoring the weaponry fell to individual managers at 500 different defense establishments.
Although there were no indications the equipment had been stolen by terrorists, the opposition Labor Party slammed the admission.
"Clearly this is a threat if it fell into the wrong hands," Labor defense spokesman Chris Evans told The Weekend Australian newspaper.
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