Oct 16, 2009, 2:48 GMT
Hong Kong - A Hong Kong teenager who made a bomb that exploded and injured a friend claimed he had also taken his homemade explosive to China to check border security, a court report said Friday.
The 14-year-old said he once took a sample of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) powder to Lo Wu over the border in southern China to see if border security would detect it. It did not, he said.
The teenager appeared in court Thursday for sentencing after earlier pleading guilt to making an explosive substance and was ordered to serve 18 months of probation.
The court heard that in March, the boy had given two classmates bombs as gifts, which he made by filling two plastic bottles with TATP after learning how to make the explosive on the internet.
However, the bomb exploded when one of the classmate lit its fuse. The friend sustained injuries to his face, an eye and two fingers.
The chemical TATP is the same explosive that was used by the terrorists responsible for the London bombings in July 2005 and by so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid, who tried to bring down a passenger plane flying from Paris to Miami in mid-air.
When arrested by police, the teenager said he had bought the chemicals from local hardware stores and pharmacies and made the bomb out of curiosity.
He later confessed to taking the explosive over the border to a psychologist who submitted a report to the court.
Magistrate Denis Lau pointed out that had the explosives been detected at the border, the boy could have been arrested as a terrorist and faced much more serious charges.
A senior customs official told the South China Morning Post that border detection focussed on imports rather than exports and it was impossible to inspect every one of the 20,000 travellers who crossed the Lo Wu border daily.
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