Pipe bomb prompts inspection of B.C. SkyTrain system

Police are carrying out a sweeping inspection of the whole SkyTrain system in B.C.’s Lower Mainland after a pipe bomb and another suspicious package were found at two separate stations Friday.

Trains are still running while the search is conducted.

The RCMP called in its bomb disposal unit about 3 p.m. PT Friday afternoon to the Scott Road station in Surrey. Officers removed a pipe bomb that laid by the tracks and was tied to two cylinders, said Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan.

Drennan said both cylinders were empty and one of them was a small green propane canister. The device was detonated by police later, she said.

Another package of a suspicious nature, not believed to be a bomb, was found Friday evening by a SkyTrain employee in the Metrotown station, Drennan said.

SkyTrain service was halted at Scott Road station during the afternoon incident.

Drennan said trains were allowed to pass through Metrotown while the device there was being dealt with, but they did not stop.

Video taken by a CBC News cameraman perched in a tree near the Scott Road scene showed a bomb disposal officer on the tracks placing an object that looked like a small piece of pipe into a bag, and then at least one green propane canister.

Drennan said it was possible the device had been thrown up onto the tracks from below and investigators would be viewing surveillance camera recordings.