BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Dozens of small rocket warheads were stolen from a train carrying military equipment from Romaniato Bulgaria, officials said Monday,
Authorities promised that the 64 warheads posed no danger to the public but offered varying explanations why.
The Romanian national police said there was no risk because they were not attached to rockets. Spokesman Florin Hulea declined to provide further details.
Two daily newspapers cited officials close to the investigation as saying that the warheads did not contain explosives. The papers,Evenimentul Zilei and Adevarul, did not identify their sources.
Bulgaria's Economy Ministry said the warheads belonged to 122mm (4.8-inch)-diameter Grad rockets, which are typically fired from vehicle-mounted multiple-rocket launchers.
Transport police in the central city of Brasov told the Mediafax news agency that the warheads were in four boxes in one of the cars on a train carrying equipment from a Romanian company that produces artillery shells and ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles.
Romanian officials also tried to portray the Saturday theft as accidental. Eugen Badalan, a member of the parliamentary defense committee, said the thieves "had no idea what they stole," and prosecutors said they were investigating whether the components were stolen by scrap metal thieves.
However, only one of the eight cars on the 27-car train was broken into.
Mediafax reported that railway workers noticed the seals on a carriage door were broken, and the door was not properly closed, when the train reached Giurgiu, a Danube port that borders Bulgaria.
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