Stolen radioactive material prompts high alert across Mexico | News | DW | 25.04.2017

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Stolen radioactive material prompts high alert across Mexico

Nine Mexican states have been placed on high alert after a radioactive material used in medical equipment was stolen. Radioactive substances have been reported stolen or lost several times in Mexico since 2013.

Symbolbild Strahlung Radioaktivität (AFP/Getty Images/O. Laban-Mattei)

The head Mexico's national emergency services, Luis Felipe Puente, warned on Monday that an unknown amount of nuclear material used in medical equipment had been stolen from the back of a truck in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state.

"This was industrial equipment that included Iridium-192... which can be dangerous for people if it is taken out of its container," the interior ministry said in a statement.

The theft prompted an alert and search for material across nine states: Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacan San Luis Potosi, Durango and Zacatecas.

Puente urged anyone who uncovers the substance to report it and stressed not to open it. Anyone who finds it should be sure to stay back 30 meters (yards) and immediately contact authorities for help, he said.

Since 2013, there have been at least seven cases across Mexico of radioactive materials being stolen or being lost. Last year, a container of radioactive material used In X-rays was stolen along with a car. In all cases the material was returned without incident.

dm/bw (AP, Reuters)

  • Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec (Reuters/C. Jasso)

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    Fiery fiesta

    Months after a fatal explosion tore through a fireworks market in Tultepec, Mexico, the town honored its patron saint by exploding hundreds of colorful bull figures rigged with fireworks. The blast at the San Pablito pyrotechnics market unleashed a powerful chain-reaction that burst through the market in a cascade of explosions.

  • Mexiko Explosion auf einem Feuerwerkskörper-Markt in Tultepec (picture alliance/dpa/Stringer/EFE)

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    Deadly explosion before Christmas

    Forty-two people died and 70 were injured when tonnes of fireworks ignited at a market inTultepec, on the northern outskirts of Mexico City a few days before Christmas last year.

  • Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec (picture alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell)

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    Flamboyant festival for San Juan de Dios

    Tultepec returned to its flamboyant but risky ways, marking the Catholic festival of San Juan de Dios, with thousands of revelers running among exploding fireworks and hundreds of giant burning paper bulls.

  • Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec (picture alliance/abaca/M. Velasquez)

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    Firework capital of Mexico

    Known as the "firework capital of Mexico," the village has specialized in making explosive powder since the 19th century. Local authorities say it exports $4 million (3.8 million euros) worth of fireworks a year to Central America and the United States. Also, an estimated 30,000 people in Tultepec work in the fireworks business.

  • Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec (picture alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell)

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    "Fire, fire!"

    Fireworks explode off a wheeled paper bull rigged with fireworks in the middle of the packed town square as delighted revelers yell "Fire, fire!" Firefighters, ambulances and security forces were out in force in case of accidents.

  • Mexiko Feuerwerk traditioneller Stier Torito in Tultepec (picture alliance/abaca/M. Velasquez )

    Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

    Devotion to a dangerous art

    Eighteen-year-old local powder maker Uriel Gonzales says: "It's worth the risk of dying for the beauty of the craft." The San Pablito fireworks market has exploded on three occasions over the past 12 years...

    Author: Nadine Berghausen


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