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An Easter egg hunt in south-western Germany took a worrying turn on Sunday when two men discovered a vial labelled “Polonium 210” in a garden, triggering an emergency response as authorities tested for the potentially lethal radioactive substance.<\/p>\n
District fire chief Andy Dorroch said the men found a small white plastic bottle with a red cap and called the emergency services. He added that the two men were unharmed.<\/p>\n
The discovery led to a large-scale operation involving the fire brigade and police in the town of Vaihingen an der Enz, north-west of Stuttgart.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear whether the 50-millilitre vial actually contained polonium 210.<\/p>\n
“We are assuming that this is indeed the substance in question,” Dorroch said. He noted that the name was “not just scribbled on by hand, but was clearly and officially labelled.”<\/p>\n
The vial also weighed an estimated 200 grams, which would correspond with a relatively heavy substance like polonium, he said.<\/p>\n
However, initial on-site measurements to detect radioactivity came back negative, he said.<\/p>\n
Officials from the Environment Ministry collected the vial in Vaihingen an der Enz in order to analyse its contents, police said.<\/p>\n
According to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), the chemical element polonium is particularly dangerous if inhaled or absorbed through the skin via open wounds.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin critic and former intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko died in London in 2006 following an attack involving polonium 210.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n