SYDNEY — Police said Thursday no explosives were found in what appeared to be a “collar bomb” strapped to an 18-year-old Sydney girl from a wealthy family who was imprisoned in the device for ten hours.
The ski-mask wearing intruder who entered the teen’s multimillion dollar home and rigged up the apparatus remained at large.
Madeleine Pulver was released from the device by bomb specialists after getting expert advice from the Australian Federal Police and the British military, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported.
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Police later said there were no explosives in the contraption, which remained intact.
It was not known if there had been any ransom demands or payments, although the paper said it was believed the intruder had left a ransom note for Madeleine’s parents.
The Telegraph reported Madeleine had been reunited with her parents, William and Belinda Pulver, one of Sydney’s wealthiest couples. It said they recently had moved back to Australia from New York.
Sky News reported William Pulver was CEO of a linguistics technology company and Madeleine was one of four children.
Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch described the device as “very elaborate and sophisticated,” a police statement said.
Murdoch said “the family are at a loss to explain this” and added police had not been in contact with the intruder but “want to get our hands on them pretty smartly.”
The bizarre incident apparently began when the intruder entered the house in the posh Sydney harborside suburb of Mosman shortly after 2:00pm local time and took Madeleine hostage.
He strapped a device around the teen’s neck and told her she could call police but warned her not to tell them too much or else he would detonate the bomb remotely.
The man told Madeleine he would be able to hear her and what she told authorities, indicating he had planted listening devices within the house. With the bomb secured, he then disappeared, the paper said.
Police were called to the home just before 2:30pm by Madeleine’s father, who had received a frantic phone call from his daughter.
Murdoch said Madeleine, who turned 18 last month, was in an “uncomfortable position” during her ordeal. She was fed, given water and kept warm by police who worked to free her.
X-rays also were taken before any attempts to defuse the device or free her. Murdoch initially described it as a “tough nut to crack.”
Murdoch said he was not aware of “anything like this happening in New South Wales or this country before.”
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