Melbourne shopping mall evacuated after bomb scare

MELBOURNE - Two thousand people were evacuated from a large shopping centre in the Australian city of Melbourne on Wednesday after a suspicious device was found and a police bomb squad was called in.

The shopping centre scare follows the evacuation and closure of a domestic airport terminal in the city on Monday after people began falling sick, vomiting and complaining of nausea and headaches. No cause has yet been found.

The suspicious device was found in the food court of a shopping centre in Melbourne's eastern suburb of Knox, a police spokeswoman said.

"The bomb response unit are there to determine whether it is dangerous. They are still using x-ray equipment," she said.

Forty-five people were taken to hospital and hundreds of travellers left stranded when the Virgin Blue domestic terminal was evacuated on Monday.

Airport officials initially said they believed the cause of the illnesses could be a chemical leak, but fire brigades searched the terminal and found no source for the illnesses.

Australia has never been hit by a major terror attack on its soil but 88 Australians were among 202 people killed in nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in October 2002.

- REUTERS