Neighbours in Australia are being urged to look out for strange smells, chemical containers and blacked out windows in a new drug-lab campaign being linked to television's Breaking Bad programme.
The campaign comes after police admitted the proliferation of suburban drug labs was beginning to resemble the hit series, about a chemistry teacher who cooks up meth in neighbourhood spots.
Emergency services have responded to explosions in two suspected Sydney drug labs within 24 hours. Two men were badly burned in the first explosion, at Barden Ridge in south Sydney on Sunday night. A third man was burned in a Bankstown explosion on Monday afternoon.
The campaign will feature a poster identifying seven tell-tale signs a house is being used as a clandestine drug lab.
NSW Drug Squad commander Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said already this year police had closed down 84 labs used to manufacture drugs including Ice, speed and Ecstasy, and 163 hydro houses where cannabis was grown.
