DUBLIN, Ireland, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Irish officials ordered a probe into an incident in which explosives were planted on a traveler arriving in Dublin as part of a security test in Slovakia.
As Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern ordered an investigation, Slovakian Interior Minister Robert Kalinak offered an apology on behalf of his government, pledging to cooperate in the investigation, CNN reported Wednesday.
Three ounces of an experimental explosive were found last weekend in the luggage of the unsuspecting traveler flying from Bratislava to Dublin in what Slovak authorities said was part of a test of their country's airport security measures.
Irish police, working with an army bomb squad, closed a section of central Dublin while they recovered the explosive, media outlets reported. The traveler, an electrician returning from a vacation in Slovakia, was arrested and held for several hours before being released.
No reason was given for why Slovak officials waited several days to alert Irish authorities about the matter, CNN said.
Since the incident, officials have established that the explosive was concealed in the luggage without the man's knowledge "as part of an airport security exercise by the authorities in Slovakia," Ireland's Department of Justice said.
The material was planted in the luggage of eight travelers, IrishTimes.com reported. Security checks at the Bratislava airport discovered the other seven containers.
