US: Teen held in connection with suicide bomb plot

A hate-filled teenager collected enough supplies to kill dozens in a suicide bomb attack on his school, police said today.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested on Saturday after his parents called police when 10lbs of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in South Carolina.

Police Chief Randall Lear said a diary kept by Schallenberger described plans to make several bombs and including maps of Chesterfield High School.

Schallenberger planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at the school, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Mr Lear said.

Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.

“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” the police chief said.

Meanwhile, the high school will be on red alert today when students return. Pupils will walk through metal detectors borrowed from a court and bomb and drug sniffing dogs have been called in.

Schallenberger kept a diary for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.

He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Mr Lear would not say what was on the tape except to point out that Schallenberger was an angry young man.

“He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him – the rich boys with good-looking girlfriends,” Mr Lear said.

In his writings, Schallenberger said he admired the two teenagers who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 before committing suicide, Mr Lear said. The attack happened nine years ago yesterday, but Mr Lear said investigators did not know whether there was any link between the anniversary and Schallenberger’s plans.

Schallenberger was one of the top pupils at the high school of about 580 students and had not caused any serious problems before his arrest, principal Scott Radkin said.

The teenager was in the Chesterfield County jail today, charged with possessing materials to make bombs, the police chief said. Other than the bomb-making material, no other weapons were found at his home, Mr Lear said.

Schallenberger’s parents could not immediately be located.

Chesterfield is a town of about 1,500 in north-eastern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.