It is 5:15 p.m. when a TGV at Reims station is about to leave for Paris this Monday, February 13, 2023. The train does not, however, start at the scheduled time. In question, a black handbag reported in the train. Successive announcements at the microphone do not make it possible to find its owner. The skipper then decides to initiate the regulatory procedure: launch a suspicious package alert with evacuation, establishment of a security perimeter, police intervention, mine clearance, etc. The nightmare of any user in a hurry to reach their destination.
An impatient passenger rolls up his sleeves and decides to take action. No question of arriving in Paris late! The skipper has just issued the evacuation order when he grabs the suspicious handbag and goes down to the platform “under the dumbfounded eyes of the controllers”, reports a witness to our colleagues from L’Union . “He even opened the bag, which contained… only a packet of chewing gum and some post-its.” No prosecution was brought against the passenger who was, on the contrary, “blithely thanked.” The TGV arrived on time in Paris without the slightest delay.
This suspicious package that sent shivers down your spine
On December 29, the scanners at Heathrow airport in England rang as a package passed through Pakistan. Inside, a small dose of radioactive substance. Quickly identified, its recipient was intercepted by law enforcement two weeks later at his home in Cheshire. “The discovery of a very small amount of uranium in a package at Heathrow airport is obviously concerning, but it shows the effectiveness of the procedures and checks in place with our partners to detect this kind of substance”, then welcomed the chief of police to Richard Smith in the Sun. If the incident was officially not related to “a direct threat to the public”, the highly dangerous contents of the package could have been used to design a “dirty bomb” which allows radioactive materials to be dispersed during an explosion. ..
A suspicious package found on a train © DE
