Easter celebrations were thrown into chaos after a vial of deadly radioactive poison was found instead of chocolate in a German city. A bottle labeled “polonium 210”, a rare isotope used by Russia to assassinate its critics, was found in the garden of a home near Stuttgart, southwest Germany, on Easter Sunday. According to the report, they informed the police, who dispatched 138 members of emergency personnel and 41 vehicles to the scene.
A radiation protection unit was also deployed on the property in Vaihingen an der Enz, Sun Report. A spokesman for the local fire department said the vial was believed to be “genuine”, with the label “not only hand-written” but also “clearly and officially marked”.
Polonium-210 was the deadly substance behind the assassination of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko by Vladimir Putin in 2006.
The Kremlin critic died in agony at his new London home after being poisoned during a meeting with former KGB agents Andrei Lugovy and Dmitry Kovtun.
Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat was also suspected of being poisoned by the isotope in 2004, after Swiss scientists detected levels 18 times the normal amount in his remains.
Polonium-210 can be extremely difficult to detect because all the radiation remains in the body once swallowed.
It is believed that Litvinenko was murdered after the colorless and odorless substance was put into a cup of tea, after which the poison caused extensive damage to the body.
Reactive particles produced by radiation can form toxic compounds that are lethal to surrounding cells, with only a few milligrams required for a lethal dose.
Following reports that the two people who found the vial in Waihingen an der Enz were safe, the German Environment Ministry is now expected to test the substance to confirm its composition.
