Fatal bomb blast still investigated

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

INVESTIGATIONS into the bomb incident in Honiara that killed two expatriates last year is still to be completed.

Police Commissioner, Mostyn Mangau confirmed this when responding to a question at his weekly press conference last week.

He said investigators are yet to finalise their findings on that incident, which occurred on September 20, 2020 in a residential area at Tasahe, in West Honiara.

The bomb blast incident involved two expats, a dual New Zealand -Irish citizen and an Australian national working for the non-government organisation, the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) on a non-technical survey of explosive remnants of World War Two in Solomon Islands.

Both died from the blast at the office of the project located within the residential area.

Police said the project was here to involve in non-technical survey for data purposes and they were supposed not to remove explosives or bombs found during their survey.

Prior to that incident, police were not aware of the fact the two expats removed bombs from their location, until the incident that day.

Mangau said Solomon Island is one of the heavy battle grounds during World War II and bombs are everywhere.

“Thus, people need to work together with the police once they see any bomb in their location.”

Police also said that after the incident and after attending to the scene, the responsible department within the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force moved all other unexploded ordnances discovered at the NPA residence at Tasahe to Hell’s Point for disposal.

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