Police in Germany say the search is ongoing but that the identity of the suspect and circumstances behind the incident are unknown.

German police are searching for a man who abandoned a bag of explosives at a train station in Berlin and fled after being stopped by officers.

Police said they had attempted to stop the man for a routine ID check at the Neukölln station in the German capital on Wednesday afternoon. He ran away and explosives were found in the backpack he left behind, Berlin’s police force said in a post on X.

The explosive material was taken to a nearby park, where experts detonated it on Wednesday evening, according to the post.

  • Lhianna
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    1 day ago

    It wasn’t a bomb. There was no detonator. It was explosive material that can explode when you look at it the wrong way. There is no way to defuse it.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I agree that controlled detonations can be the safest route, especially for highly unstable materials where any disturbance could trigger them. I’d understood, though, (again, not an expert), that in many cases… especially if no immediate threat to people is present… technicians might start with robots to examine the material remotely or potentially neutralize it without detonation, if safe.

      And, from my non-expert opinion, some explosive materials are sensitive enough to warrant a controlled detonation right away, but it seems there are far, far more often initial remote investigations before they make that call, to avoid unnecessary detonations. It’s always fascinating to see how much science goes into evaluating safety protocols! Or doesn’t, in this case.

      • Maalus@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        If you are not an expert, why are you so stubbornly repeating your opinion over and over?

        They are the experts and they decided to handle them a specific way.

        • foggy@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Because I posted a fun reasonable nonsense and y’all keep downviting and responding.

          There are better ways to disagree with reasonable discourse.

          • Maalus@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            Yeah, read the room. This is news about a foiled terrorist attack on a German train station. Not everything needs to be “fun”. Not everything needs to be nonsense. There are better ways to contribute, especially since you basically went “omg police handcuffed a suspect they wanna bdsm?” but for the bomb squad.