Special police units took action on several locations in Poprad and Kežmarok on Thursday to deal what is believed to be international trafficking with radioactive substances, the TA3 news television channel reported. According to the Prešov regional police spokesman Daniel Džobanik, police searched several houses and other premises in the two towns near the High Tatra mountains, with a related operation being carried out simultaneously in Germany. The police spokesman declined to provide any further details. TA3 reported that police in Poprad searched the apartment of an Italian national, while in Kežmarok they carried out a search of the office and private house of a judicial debt collector. The Italian national had earlier been investigated for tax fraud. Based on information from Slovak authorities, German police allegedly seized ten kilogrammes of a radioactive substance often used in health care but also for the production of a 'dirty bomb'.

Gavin Shoebridge Foto: TASR