Passenger train headed for Russia evacuated after radioactive spike

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Russian authorities are investigating the cause of a spike in radiation levels that was discovered on a passenger train bound for Moscow, officials said.

The train originated in Berlin on Tuesday, investigators said, and was ultimately evacuated and decontaminated, but guards at the Poland-Belarus border detected isotopes again.

Officials are looking into reports that a cancer patient had traveled on the train and warned the crew he might leave behind traces of radiation, due to treatments.

Russian officials said passengers were not in danger.

"According to the results of the measurements, there was no danger to the health of passengers on board this train," Moscow's Emergencies Ministry said.

No passengers were aboard the contaminated train car when it arrived in Moscow, and a mobile laboratory was deployed to test samples.