(United Press International circulated the following story on June 3.)
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea had a scare Thursday as suspected explosives were found on the tracks of a bullet train, which turned out to be wooden sticks disguised as dynamite.
The device was discovered between the railway and the platform during a routine check during the morning rush hour, just five minutes before the departure of a high-speed train at the country’s southern, second-largest city of Busan.
Police said the wooden device resembled a stick of dynamite used for engineering purposes. The discovery delayed the departure of the high-speed train, dubbed the KTX (Korea Train Express), which went ahead after the device turned out to be a piece of wood.
The false alarm caused an uproar in the country, where it was feared this might have been a terrorist attack like the ones in Spain, where a series of train bombings recently killed nearly 200 people. South Koreans fear their plans to send thousands of troops to Iraq could make them a terrorist target.