Serbia-Croatia border arrests for automobile radioactivity

(BBC) ⸻ Three Croatian nationals have been arrested in Serbia after radioactive material was discovered in their car. The incident occurred at the Bezdan border crossing near the town of Sombor on Saturday at 20:30 (19:30 GMT). A statement by Serbian customs authorities said stationary monitors detected a "serious amount" of radiation and a subsequent search revealed the head of a radioactive lightning rod in the spare tyre slot of the boot. Experts from Serbia's Vinca nuclear research institute have reportedly moved the head of the lightning rod to a safer place. Hundreds of thousands of radioactive lightning rods were installed worldwide in the past few decades in the belief that they enhanced the chance of lightning strikes hitting the rods and not nearby targets. However, the IAEA said that "no convincing scientific evidence has been produced to demonstrate increased efficacy" and many countries had decided to stop the production of these devices. It highlighted cases where rod heads were sold as scrap metal by traders unaware of their existence or danger.