By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
A SECOND suspicious plastic bottle was found at Tooradin Primary School and the bomb squad called to assist local police, on Tuesday 12 July.
The suspicious device was found at 8.40am, and the whole school was evacuated to the oval as a precaution.
A message was sent out to the entire school community, headlined: ‘Evacuating School as a Precaution’.
A spokeswoman from Victoria Police said the plastic bottle found had liquid inside it.
“Police don’t believe that the new bottle was left at the school today, they believe it had been there since yesterday,” she said.
On the first day back at school, on Monday 11 July, a student found the bottle during clean up and disposed of it in a bin outside an office.
Senior Sergeant Nathan Prowd from the Pakenham Police Station was alerted to the incident about 3.30pm on Monday and made a statement.
“It didn’t seem suspicious, just general rubbish,” Snr Sgt Prowd said.
But during the course of the day the bottle ruptured in the bin and a strong gas smell drifted into the adjacent office space.
“Some type of liquid has been released,” Snr Sgt Prowd said.
“We’ve had nine staff members with very minor symptoms shown and the staff immediately evacuated,” he said.
About 20 students were also removed from the building and accompanied staff onto the school oval.
Four CFA trucks attended and firefighters ventilated the office space and took the bottle onto the school oval.
No-one required hospital treatment and the police investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information on the two suspicious bottles is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
