Residents had been evacuated from Cawthorn Crescent in Evatt this morning, after police discovered what was suspected to be a petrol bomb left in the tray of a ute parked in the front yard of a home.

The street was locked down before specialist bomb response units rushed to the scene about 8.30am.

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They took just over two hours to render the package safe, and the streets were eventually reopened at 12.05pm.

The victim of the suspected bomb attack, who has asked not to be named, told The Canberra Times he had woken about 2.30am to the sound of his dogs barking, and walked outside to find a man near a ute parked in his front yard.

He was then assaulted by the man, leaving visible cuts and bruising around his eye.

‘‘I’ve approached the back of my truck, he’s walked around and I’ve said ‘what the f*** are you doing here mate?’,’’ he said.

‘‘He just thumped me.’’

Hours later the man discovered what he thought to be a petrol bomb in the tray of a ute parked outside, and called police about 7am.

‘‘It looked like a petrol can that you’d use to fill your lawn mower up, wrapped up in a plastic bag with a whole lot of wadding on top of it that stinks like fuel,’’ he said.

‘‘If it’s what I think it is, he was going to light it and we were going to be woken up by the explosion.’’

The victim claims he has ‘‘no idea’’ who was responsible for the attack, and said he had never seen the alleged offender before in his life.

The suspected bomb was rendered safe by ACT Policing’s Specialist Response and Security team late this morning, and will now subject to a full forensic examination and further investigation.