‘I am such a loser! I want to die!’ boy, 15, shouts as he takes out a lighter in Aberdeen; police say he has a history of mental illness
Explosive material found by police at the boy's flat. A 15-year-old boy who is believed to be mentally ill tried to set off powerful home-made explosives at Aberdeen Police Station on Tuesday, police said.
The boy carried a shoe box when he entered the report room at 7pm and announced he was going to set off a device.
He put the box on an officer’s desk and mumbled something. His unusual behaviour caught the attention of the officers.
Then the boy took out a cigarette lighter and a test tube full of white powder and yelled: “I am such a loser, I want to die!” Officers quickly tackled him and seized the lighter. Nobody was injured.
The bomb squad was called in, and the area was evacuated. Police later took the teenager to his flat at Wah On House on the Wah Fu Estate, where objects believed to be explosives were seized and destroyed.
The boy was taken into custody, and the case was passed on to Hong Kong Island’s Regional Crime Unit for further investigation.
Dozens of residents were evacuated when bomb disposal officers caused the package to explode.
Five test tubes, each weighing between 100 grams and 200 grams, were in the box the boy carried to the police station.
Police said the white powder found in the test tubes was triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which is a high explosive sensitive to heat.
“He said he learned bomb-making techniques from books,” Aberdeen police assistant district commander Fung Ka-ying told reporters.
She said the reason for the boy’s actions was not yet known. Police have not ruled out the possibility that the boy was affected by drugs.
Telephone lines and reporting services at the Aberdeen Police Station were cut off for a short time because of the incident. They were reopened before midnight.
The boy, surnamed Leung, had a history of nervous illnesses, and had visited the Department of Psychiatry at Queen Mary Hospital several times after starting secondary school. However, he had not attended school for the past two years.