Originally published on December 4, 2013
A truck carrying "dangerous" radioactive material used for medical treatments was stolen in Mexico on Monday.
According to reports, the truck left Tijuana headed for the National Institute of Nuclear Investigation, in Ocoyoacac.
Local media said the vehicle was a 2.5-ton Volkswagen Worker with an integrated crane.
It carried cobalt-60, a radioactive material used to treat cancer, which was stored in a container.
At around 1:30 a.m., after stopping at a gas station to rest, the driver was threatened by two gunmen.
They forced him out of the vehicle, brought him to a vacant lot, tied his hands and feet and left him there while they escaped with the truck.
Cobalt-60 can potentially be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb", in which conventional explosives are used to disperse radioactive material.
According to local reports, inhalation of Cobalt-60 particles can cause damage to the central nervous system and body tissues and can be lethal after an exposure of longer than four minutes.
According to Reuters, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has offered to assist Mexican authorities, who it said were searching for the material and had alerted the public.
The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear body, did not give details on how much of the radioactive source was in the truck at the time it was stolen.
Early this year the IAEA said that more than 100 incidents of thefts and other unauthorized activities involving nuclear and radioactive material are reported annually, Reuters reported.
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