NYC tests ability to detect dirty bomb

NEW YORK, June 10 (UPI) -- A New York City test of its response to a so-called dirty bomb involved 700 FBI agents and city police officers and a radiation device created for the drill.

The radiation device, while safe, had the same radioactive signature as a dirty bomb, WPIX-TV reported. Dirty bombs add nuclear material to explosives to spread radiation over a wide area.

The drill tested the ability to detect a radioactive device concealed in a vehicle on the Clearview Expressway in Queens. Other drivers participated in the test without knowing it.

But communities in the area were notified a drill would be conducted between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday so they would not be caught off-guard. A recent low-altitude flight by a presidential jet over lower Manhattan sparked panic, including hundreds of phone calls to 911 from witnesses who thought they were seeing another attack like the one on Sept. 11, 2001.