RCMP are investigating after a package exploded on Tuesday, seriously injuring the B.C. man who opened it, in what investigators say was a targeted incident.
The small package, which originated in Whitehorse, Yukon, exploded twice in the man’s hands. Officials said that his injuries were serious but not life-threatening.
“My husband’s fingertips are blown off. He’s in Nanaimo having surgery,” Shirley Bowick, the victim’s wife, told My Comox Valley Now, a local news radio station. “I couldn’t hear for a long time and my hearing is still not there, but it’s coming back slowly. I’m really shaken up by it.”
The victim ran onto the street after the explosion, where he was helped by neighbours who drove him to the hospital.
Port Hardy RCMP, a bomb-disposal robot, explosives experts and bomb-sniffing dog visited both Clark Drive, where the incident occurred, and the post office on Wednesday to search for other devices.
“Our neighbours could have been hurt, the postal services could have been hurt and that is very horrible,” Bowick told My Comox Valley Now.
The incident has stunned Port Alice, B.C., a small village of 664 people on northern Vancouver Island.
“Everybody’s really shocked as you can imagine,” said Bruce Lloyd, the deputy mayor of Port Alice. “People come here to get away from crime, but that doesn’t stop crime from coming to us.”
