Mexico recovers stolen radioactive material after container left on city bench

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Mexican officials have recovered radioactive materials that were stolen from a truck after the container holding isotopes of americium, beryllium and caesium was left on a bench.

Mexico's National Coordination of Civil Protection of the Interior Ministry issued an alert on Friday after the radioactive material was stolen from a government truck in Mexico's northern Sonora state, which was under alert along with the states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Sinaloa.

The Sonora State Civil Protection Unit found the radioactive material Saturday night after receiving a call that a person in a gray Nissan Sentra left a black bag on a bench in Sonora's municipality of Cajeme.

"Radioactive source has been found in Sonora. National Civil Protection lifts alert," agency coordinator Luis Felipe Puente said in a statement.

In February, Mexico issued an alert in the state of Querétaro after a container carrying radioactive iridium-192 was taken during a vehicle theft. The container was later recovered.