FBI seeks human bomb clues

Mr Wells told police he could hear the bomb ticking

Police in the United States have released photos of a metal collar used in a bank robbery involving a human bomb.

Brian Douglas Wells, a pizza delivery man, was killed when a bomb strapped to his body exploded after he robbed a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, last week.

He had pleaded with police to help him in the minutes before the device went off, saying he had been forced to commit the crime.

The FBI hope photos of the collar, which was attached to the bomb, may prompt someone to come forward with evidence in a case which has shocked America.

The collar, with four locks and a dial combination, was "unique and sophisticated", said FBI special agent Bob Rudge on Tuesday.

It appears to have been specially designed for the robbery, he added.

An "extensive" message Mr Wells said he had been given to show bank staff during the robbery has been sent to handwriting experts.

"We are literally working around the clock on this case and are covering leads on an hourly basis," said Mr Rudge.

'Get this thing off me'

Mr Wells entered the bank and gave staff the note, which demanded money, and said he had a bomb.

The dead man's landlady said he had been a decent man

When he left the bank with stolen money he was surrounded by police and told them he had been forced to rob the bank after someone had started a timer on a bomb under his T-shirt.

As the police waited for the bomb squad to arrive the device went off killing Mr Wells.

Mr Wells, 46, had gone to deliver a pizza to an address in a remote area of Erie on Thursday.

About an hour later he turned up outside the bank and left with an undisclosed amount of money.

A local television station captured Mr Wells on camera outside the bank, after he had been handcuffed by police, saying:

"Why is nobody trying to come get this thing off me? It's going to go off. I'm not lying."

No-one else was hurt in the explosion.

Mr Wells' landlady, Linda Payne, said he had been a private, trustworthy man.

Overdose

One of the dead man's co-workers, 43-year-old Robert Pinetti, was himself found dead of a drugs overdose on Sunday in nearby Lawrence Park Township.

Officials who released details of his autopsy said they did not know of any link between the two deaths.

They added that there was no evidence of any trauma in the case of Mr Pinetti, who appears to have taken methadone and "valium-type" drugs.