Suspicious baggage on Russian train contained no bomb (Roundup)

Dec 9, 2009, 11:20 GMT

Kiev - Police determined that an unclaimed bag on a Russian train traveling through Ukraine's Kharkiv province was harmless and did not contain explosives, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Hundreds of passengers were evacuated before the determination was made.

A conductor aboard the passenger express running between the Russian city of St Petersburg and the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol discovered unclaimed luggage suspected of containing a bomb Tuesday evening as the train was passing through Kharkiv province, in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian railroad managers routed the train onto an isolated sidetrack, evacuated more than 250 passengers and notified law enforcement officials.

A police bomb squad removed the bag from the train and sprayed it with a water cannon. A subsequent inspection found no explosives, according to the Interfax report.

Earlier news reports had said police destroyed the suspicious luggage in a controlled explosion.

Police working with sniffer dogs found no dangerous devices aboard the train.

The express continued its southward journey before midnight, said Pavlo Odariuk, a spokesman for Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry.

The discovery of a suspected explosive device came less than two weeks after a high-speed express train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg was bombed, killing a total 27 passengers and railroad staff.

Russian law enforcement officials have blamed terrorists, possibly ethnic Chechen or Ingush insurgents for the attack.