Pipe bombs found in Gaithersburg

Montgomery County explosives experts destroyed three pipe bombs Monday after police found them in a Gaithersburg apartment where a man apparently had committed suicide, a fire department spokesman said.

Capt. Oscar Garcia said police discovered the three bombs while investigating a suspected suicide in an apartment in a three-story building in the 400 block of Sunnybrook Terrace.

Bomb technicians used a robot to remove the explosives from the apartment and place the devices in a containment vessel, Garcia said. He said they were then taken to sandbagged area in the Montgomery County Agricultural Farm Park at 11400 Muncaster Rd about 7:30 a.m. Experts used small explosive charges to render the bombs inert, Garcia said.

He said police also found bomb-making materials in the apartment. The occupant’s death and his activities involving the explosives remain under investigation, Garcia said.

-- Paul Duggan