Battle Street is closed in front of the Kamloops RCMP detachment in the downtown core as local Mounties await the arrival of an explosives team from the Lower Mainland to deal with an incendiary device on the building’s front steps.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said the device was dropped off at the detachment by a pair of concerned citizens.
“A couple of ladies had found this package in a home where one of them was a co-tenant and they thought, ‘This thing doesn’t look right,’” he said.
“When our guys went out and had a look at it, they said, ‘Yeah, it does look very suspicious.’”
Learned said the officers photographed the package and sent the images to the RCMP bomb unit in Vancouver, who told them to establish a 30- to 50-foot perimeter.
An officer placed an RCMP bullet-proof vest over the package as a precaution.
Learned said the device is “capable of erupting into a fireball.”
The detachment and Battle Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues remains closed pending the bomb unit’s findings.
At 1 p.m., Learned said the unit’s officers were waiting to board a flight to Kamloops from Vancouver.
Check kamloopsthisweek.com for updates.
