Daily Finland
German state officials have given cautious indications that a vial labelled "Polonium 210" found during an Easter egg hunt does not contain the potentially deadly substance, though they said this was preliminary ahead of further tests, reported dpa. "The initial assessment by our experts is that the find does not contain polonium 210," a spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg said. "However, this is not yet certain." The vial is to be taken to the state agency for the environment (LUBW) in Karlsruhe for further analysis. Two men found the vial in a garden in the town of Vaihingen an der Enz, north-west of Stuttgart, during an Easter egg hunt on Sunday. The fire brigade assessed the bottle and its contents as genuine based on their appearance and weight on Sunday. However, district fire chief Andy Dorroch said initial on-site measurements were carried out to detect radioactivity and all of them came back negative. He added that the two men were unharmed. The discovery sparked a large-scale operation involving the fire brigade and police in Vaihingen an der Enz. Polonium-210 is particularly dangerous if inhaled or absorbed through the skin through open wounds, according to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection. Some will recall the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former intelligence officer, who died in 2006 after an attack involving polonium-210.
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