BRATISLAVA: Slovakian police seized enriched uranium that could be used in a “dirty bomb” when they arrested three traffickers near the Hungarian border, officials said on Thursday.

“According to preliminary information, the material could have been used to make a so-called dirty bomb,” senior police official Michal Kopcik told a news conference. The haul contained 481.4 grams of the material, Kopcik said, adding that it contained uranium-235, the type used in nuclear reactors and in nuclear warheads, as well as the naturally occuring uranium-238.

“The radioactive uranium was even more dangerous because it was in powder form,” Kopcik explained.

Police said three suspects were detained on Wednesday near the Hungarian border with two containers containing the radioactive uranium. One was a 40-year old Ukrainian, another a 49-year-old Hungarian living in Ukraine and the third a Hungarian aged 51.

Police said they first traced the radioactive material in Ukraine, but did not give further details about its origin.—AFP