An RCMP officer discovered hundreds of nails on an emergency turnaround that he believes were set as a trap.

Const. Dennis Hann, who's based with the traffic services division in Holyrood, was set up on one of the turnarounds along the divided highway just east of Whitbourne on Tuesday. It's an area where police use radar to spot speeding drivers.

RCMP discovered about 200 nails on an emergency turnaround east of Whitbourne. (Courtesy Const. Dennis Hann)

That's when he noticed about 200 nails that he said were set up to puncture tires.

"They were just put on, right across the whole emergency turnaround, that there was no way of missing it if you drove over it," he said.

Hann said he believes someone intentionally targeted police.

"A person placed them there because they got a ticket one day when I was sitting there, or another police officer was sitting there doing stationary radar, and they were upset. So they figured, 'Hey, I'll get you guys back,'" he said.

Hann said it's a trap that could have had serious consequences in an emergency.

"If I had a flat tire from these nails and someone needed my help immediately and was in a life-threatening situation, I couldn't go because I had a flat tire. I would have [had] to take 10 or 15 minutes to change it," he said.

"You know, it upset me. We're there to make people safe. We're there to help people."

Hann said going forward, he will check turnarounds more often for these types of hazards.

The RCMP is asking anyone with information about the incident to report it.