Street shut amid new explosive scare

Police sealed off a section of Albert St in Hastings yesterday after an earlier search of an old commercial building and vacant land yielded another item of interest. The object was later found to be safe. Photo / Paul Taylor

Part of a street around a fortified Hastings motorbike clubhouse was cordoned-off yesterday after police found possible further evidence of explosives in searches following a weekend hand-grenade alert.

Police had been searching properties neighbouring the Highway 61 Motorcycle Club in Albert St, Mayfair, for most of the morning when another suspect item was found on a vacant, gravelled parking area between the clubhouse and the Hastings Orphans Club. There was no evidence to say where the items came from.

A cordon covering the frontages of the clubhouse and the vacant sections on either side was extended to include both sides of the street between Miller St and Hastings St about noon yesterday, after bomb squad and specialist search group members discovered the item.

It was later found to be "nothing," said Detective Sergeant Brent Greville of Hawke's Bay CIB.

A small number of people were evacuated from properties in the street for about two hours during yesterday's extended search, which ended about 2pm and included the use of a specially trained dog.

On Sunday, what police described as an "improvised explosive device" was found at a vacant section on the opposite side, in a search sparked by the finding of a live hand-grenade wrapped in plastic when a man was clearing ivy from the section earlier in the day.

He took it to the Hastings Police Station, which was then evacuated and shut down for several hours before the bomb squad arrived from outside the region and disarmed the explosive.

The squad and a specialist search group then switched attention to the Albert St property where the grenade had been found, a vacant former Hastings House Removals site, with a large shed and signage at the front.

It was on Sunday afternoon that police found the second item, which Mr Greville said was 15-20cm long and had no detonator. "The device would not have blown up on its own," he said. "Nevertheless, we have taken every precaution with it, as it had been constructed to explode."

Both items have been taken for forensic testing. There was nothing to indicate where they had come from, nor how they had come to be on the properties. It appeared they had been there for a considerable time, Mr Greville said.

Residents said the property where the grenade was found appeared to have been unused for several years. They also said there had been no noticeable problems around the Highway 61 clubhouse for some years. One resident said there did not appear to have been a lot of activity at the club in recent times, but there had been times when things were thrown at the premises from the road or people going on to the neighbouring properties.

Mr Greville said police had not searched the club property. It has high green corrugated iron boundary fences, an intercom-monitored gate, and street and entrance surveillance cameras.

Police said the man who found the grenade was declining requests for media interviews.