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Mexico radioactive material found, 'no health risk' | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Radioactive medical material taken when a truck was stolen in Mexico has been found, local officials say. | |
They say the box which contained the cobalt-60 had been tampered with, but the material had not been removed from its protective casing. | |
The material posed no health risk for the surrounding population, Mardonio Jimenez from the National Nuclear Security Commission told local TV. | |
The truck was stolen on Monday near the capital Mexico City. | |
'Opportunistic theft' | |
The vehicle was found abandoned barely 2km (1.4 miles) from where it had been stolen from a petrol station. | |
Mr Jimenez said the radioactive material was now in the hands of the authorities. | |
But he warned that the thieves had potentially been exposed to life-threatening levels of radiation and were being sought by the police. | |
"They will eventually have to go to a hospital, and we'll be waiting for them," Mr Jimenez said. | |
The military has sealed off the area. | |
The Volkswagen truck was stolen as its driver stopped to fill up the tank in Tepojaco. | |
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) described the material as "extremely dangerous" and there was some speculation that it could have been used to build a "dirty bomb". | |
However, it appears that this was an opportunistic theft which went badly wrong, the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City reports. | |
Cobalt-60 is used in cancer treatment and was being transported from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a disposal centre near the capital. |