Suspicious package prompts street closures near Białystok rail tunnel

Police in Białystok, Poland, closed several streets in the city centre on Wednesday after railway security staff found a suspicious package on a freight train near an important road tunnel, RMF24 and Gazeta.pl reported. Bomb disposal officers were sent to examine it.

Officers from the Railway Protection Service found a foil-wrapped package on one of several tanker wagons carrying diesel fuel, part of a 32-wagon freight train that had arrived from Suwałki on 25 September, Gazeta.pl reported. Bomb disposal officers could not examine the package until the wagon was uncoupled from the rest of the train. The reports did not say who was believed to have left the package, or why.

Police cordoned off the area and evacuated staff from a petrol station on Kopernika street, near the road tunnel named after General August Emil Fieldorf 'Nil', RMF24 and Gazeta.pl reported. Składowa, Kopernika and Hetmańska streets, which lead to the tunnel from both sides, were closed to traffic.

Police said the length of the disruption would depend on how quickly the remaining tanker wagons could be towed away, allowing bomb disposal officers to examine the package, Gazeta.pl reported. Drivers in the city centre were told to expect delays until the operation was complete, RMF24 reported. No casualties or injuries have been reported.

In a separate incident this week, a large fire broke out in an unoccupied building under construction on Sienkiewicza street, one of the city's main streets, in central Białystok, sending thick black smoke over the city, Onet Wiadomości and TVP Info reported. Zbigniew Kasperczuk, a local politician from the Confederation party, posted photographs of the blaze on social media, writing that the centre of Białystok was burning. Firefighters were still working to extinguish the fire, Interia Fakty reported, adding that the building had not been in use.