Shop, office bombings ‘act of vandalism’

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 3

Shop, office bombings ‘act of vandalism’

Two bomb explosions in Christchurch on Wednesday evening were “more of an act of vandalism than an effort to damage properly,” said a police spokesman yesterday. However, Detective Senior-Sergeant Arthur Rodgers said that the two pipe bombs were powerful enough to have injured passers-by. One damaged a rear window at the Canterbury Tales Bookshop, in Merivale, and the other shattered a pane of glass in the front door of the Colombo Street headquarters of Radio Rhema, the Christian radio station.

The explosion at the bookshop was heard by staff at the nearby Kubla Khan restaurant about 11.30 p.m. The damage to the radio station was found by a staff member at 8.15 a.m. yesterday. No-one was injured by the blasts. The bombs were described by Detective SeniorSergeant Rodgers as “amateur jobs,” about 23cm long,

and made of copper piping. It was not yet known how they were detonated. The police had not found a motive for the bombings, nor had the two explosions been linked, he said. A Department of Scientific and Industrial Research scientist is conducting tests on the bomb debris.

The damage to the bookshop was not discovered until the owner arrived to open it yesterday morning. He would not talk about the incident yesterday afternoon.

Staff at the Kubla Khan restaurant, which is near the bookshop in the Village Gate shopping area at Merivale, checked liquefied petroleum gas bottles used for cooking after hearing the explosion. They did not see the damage to the bookshop. Miss Kathryn Taylor, a receptionist at Radio Rhema, arrived at work yesterday to find a pane of glass in the front door shattered, and a piece of metal lying nearby. She then got

in touch with the police. Staff at the station had no idea why somebody would want to bomb it, she said. Two other pipe bombs have exploded in Christchurch in the last four years, but no-one was injured in either blast. In September, 1980, a small hole was blown in the deck of a utility truck parked near the Guardsman Restaurant, in Armagh Street. The Ministry of Transport had received a telephone threat against Noah’s Hotel not long before the explosion. Windows were shattered and holes blown in the roof of the men’s toilet at Christchurch Airport after a bomb exploded there in 1981. The explosion came on the afternoon the Springboks were scheduled to play Waikato, but anti-tour protesters disclaimed responsibility. A man accused of setting" off the bomb was discharged in the High Court at Christchurch.