Shoppers and retail staff were frightened to see specialist police squads seal off part of Seymour on the weekend.
A bomb placed in a public toilet was safely defused, however the person who placed it there is yet to be identified.
In what was already a busy weekend for Seymour police, a call was made to triple zero around 1.30pm on Sunday, January 29.
The caller reported a suspicious package in the disabled toilet of the public toilet block located between Seymour Library and Customer Service Centre and O’Keefe’s IGA on Anzac Ave.
Police attended the scene and deemed the package located at the back of the toilet unit to be an improvised explosive device.
The area was cordoned off and police specialist units were called in to remove and deactivate it.
At this stage police do not believe there is anything to indicate the bomb attempt was a prejudiced crime.
A retail assistant from nearby shop M Mart said that she saw a man standing out the front of the toilet block making a call, with police arriving to talk to him a short time later.
“I was serving a customer ... who knew the police officers ... they went out and asked the police officers themselves and came back and said it was a pipe bomb, but they were not sure as to the seriousness of it,” the employee said.
The retail assistant said the business was able to remain trading until about 5pm when the police cordoned off a larger area, in preparation for removing the device.
“It was pretty action-packed, there was quite a lot of police in uniform,” they said.
“When the bomb squad got there, they were all in black, they were carrying sandbags, there was a dog and this whole block was no access, police were standing in the streets.”
The toilet and car park were again deemed safe for use shortly after 5pm, when the device was removed.
The police investigation of the incident is still in its early stages.
Victoria Police forensic scientists will analyse the IED and provide a report, which will outline the destruction that the device may have caused if it was successfully detonated.
The investigation is ongoing with police currently reviewing CCTV footage from the IGA.
Seymour police encourage anyone who witnessed suspicious behaviour or who has knowledge of the incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.