BOMB SCARE AT MAGISTRATES COURT

MBABANE – The Mbabane Magistrates Court staff members were hastily evacuated from the court building, after police had received information that three bombs had been planted within the premises.

The incident, which left the employees traumatised, happened around 9am yesterday. The magistrates court staff include magistrates, prosecutors, court clerks, court orderlies, warders, typists and cleaners. Eswatini is one of the African countries where planting of bombs is very uncommon. Information gathered was to the effect that the police officers rushed to evacuate the employees immediately, after receiving the information, which was firstly directed to the Eswatini National Fire, Rescue  and Emergency Services by an anonymous caller. Suspects and inmates who were in court to answer on allegations leveled against them were also removed from the court premises for their safety.

“Police officers came and instructed us to vacate our offices as they had received information that three bombs had been planted within the premises,” said one of the employees. Another employee said she thought it was a joke when the police officers said; “Phumani nonkhe (get out),” while inside the courtroom. During a visit to the Mbabane Magistrates Court, the employees were found gathered on the other side of the road passing by the court. Police officers from the Forensic Unit and Bomb Disposal Unit were found at the scene. The police officers of the law were working hand-in-hand with Bastion Security Services in the controlled area, which was marked with a yellow tape.

While at the scene, the police officers and the Bastion Security Services officers conducted a clean sweep using sniffer dogs. The sniffer dogs searched every corner of the court. However, the alleged bombs were not detected. The news resulted in the delay of operations at the court. Fresh matters were dealt with before noon while some matters, which were due for trial, were postponed to other dates. Some employees were not comfortable with going back to their offices even after the clean sweep. This swayed the minds of some of the employees into thinking that the unknown caller fabricated the story just to disturb the court proceedings. Police officers, mostly from the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU), spent about an hour searching each and every office of the building. It was gathered that no bomb was detected during the search.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: