Australian home rigged like ˝Die Hard˝ movie

Police found about 50 devices around the Maroubra home, including a pressure switch linked to two gas cylinders in a car parked outside.

SYDNEY, March 3, 2010 (AFP) - An Australian recluse fortified his home with so many improvised explosive devices it resembled something out of a Hollywood action movie, police said Wednesday.

Bomb experts were sent to the residence in eastern Sydney on Tuesday after neighbours raised the alarm about a number of suspicious devices and said they had not seen the man who lived there for several days.

They found about 50 devices in and around the Maroubra home, including a pressure switch linked to two gas cylinders in a car parked outside.

"(It's) certainly something you would see in one of the "Die Hard" movies," Detective Superintendent Gavin Dengate told reporters.

Police detonated several of the items but concluded none of the expertly made devices had the potential to cause damage or injury.

"All of the devices were inert... they weren't capable of actually detonating," Dengate said.

Dengate said police knew very little about the 69-year-old man who lived in the home and who died last week in hospital.

But they said he was probably not trying to randomly injure people.

"He was a recluse and he wanted to remain that way," Dengate said.