The Customs and Excise Department has been placed on full alert after a suspicious object was placed outside the head office of its anti-piracy taskforce in Tsim Sha Tsui early yesterday and a bomb threat made.
As a result of the incident, all 80 frontline officers from the Special Task Force have been ordered to carry guns, pepper spray and extendable batons, according to sources.
About 40 customs officers who were on duty were evacuated from the ground-floor office and police threw a cordon around a section of Middle Road as bomb disposal officers were called in.
Shortly after 1am, a robot shot jets of water at a silver plastic bag which appeared to have a bomb inside. A police spokeswoman said the bag contained two tubes filled with sand, wrapped with electric wires and attached to a clock, but no explosive was found.
The sources said that all 147 administration and operational employees from the unit - which was formed in 1999 to combat sales of pirated goods - have been told to be extra-vigilant and look out for suspicious objects or people while entering and leaving the Middle Road office.
The fake bomb was discovered by a customs officer outside the front door of the taskforce's office just before midnight.
At the time, five suspects who had been rounded up on Friday in operations against pirated discs and smuggled cigarettes were being held in cells inside the office.
