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In 2 explosives calls in 2 days, B.C. Mounties discover IED and homemade battery pack

A view of the bridge over Okanagan Lake between West Kelowna and Kelowna, B.C., is shown. (Shutterstock.com) A view of the bridge over Okanagan Lake between West Kelowna and Kelowna, B.C., is shown. (Shutterstock.com)
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VANCOUVER -

Mounties in the Okanagan were called in for two separate reports of possible explosives in a two-day period.

The first was during the examination of a shooting scene. While investigating an incident in Kelowna that sent two people to hospital, officials located what they've described as an undetonated explosive device.

In a news release Tuesday, the RCMP confirmed that device was a "viable" improvised explosive device (IED) that had "the potential to cause significant damage to property and seriously injure members of the public."

The device was found not far from the shooting scene near Pandosy Street and KLO Road on July 31.

The very next day, the RCMP's Explosives Disposal Unit disposed of another suspicious device, this time found in West Kelowna.

Just 11 kilometres away, officers were at a home on Cameron Road near Westgate Road when they found a possible IED in that investigation.

The cases are not related.

The area was evacuated as a precaution and experts were called to remove the device and dispose of it elsewhere.

This device, according to Staff Sgt. Duncan Dixon of the West Kelowna RCMP, turned out not to be an IED after all.

"Examination of the device determined that it was someone's attempt at a homemade battery pack," he said in a statement Wednesday.

"However it was unstable and potentially dangerous."

Both investigations are ongoing, the RCMP detachments said.

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