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Bomb squads sent to check suspicious parcels in Shanghai

Police officers stand guard as workers and shoppers are cleared from a shopping mall in Shanghai yesterday after staff at a supermarket found a briefcase sitting beside an ATM machine. PHOTO: AP

Shanghai police say bomb squads have been sent out twice in the past two days to check suspicious bags and parcels that turned out not to contain explosives.

Workers and shoppers were cleared from a shopping mall in northwest Shanghai’s Putuo District early yesterday after staff at a supermarket found a briefcase behind an ATM machine, police and eyewitnesses said.

Authorities have urged the public to be vigilant about any possible threats during the Olympics, so a bomb squad equipped with a special vehicle for carrying explosives was summoned.

The vehicle removed the briefcase, which contained only newspapers and plastic bags.

“It was just one normal, new briefcase that some careless person left behind, with newspapers and plastic bags inside,” said Wang Jiwei, a spokesman for the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

“Lots of careless people leave things that could seem suspicious in public places and people worried about security will call the police. So far, they are just false alarms,” Wang said.

There have been at least five bomb scares this month, including yesterday’s, local media said.

On Wednesday, a man angry over a housing dispute and claiming to have a bomb took an office manager hostage, but police said that they defused the crisis, detained the man and found no explosives.

Photos in state-run newspapers showed bomb squad specialists in protective gear and a round, explosion-proof vehicle used to carry suspected bombs.

Police at the shopping mall yesterday at first instructed staff working there to tell shoppers that the incident was a planned drill, even though it wasn’t.

Wang said they took that precaution to prevent unnecessary panic.

Security is intense in and around cities including Shanghai, which is hosting some Olympic soccer matches. Authorities check travelers’ passports and ID — even if the visitors are Chinese — train and subway passengers are subjected to bag searches and major public facilities screen packages using X-ray machines.
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