Russian bomb squad called in to defuse sex toy

Anti-terrorist bomb squad experts called to post office in to make safe a package containing a sex toy.

SAINT PETERSBURG: Anti-terrorist bomb squad experts were called to a post office in the northwest of Russia to make safe a package from which a strange ticking sound was coming, local police said Monday.

They found a vibrator.

The incident took place at Petrozavodsk in the republic of Karelia and followed a call from a postal worker who had identified a suspect package, a police spokeswoman told AFP by phone.

"The post building was ringed by the security forces and people were evacuated," she said.

"In the package the bomb squad found a vibrator."

The sex toy had apparently been turned on "by accident".

Nerves are on edge in Russia after an attack in January on the Domodedovo airport near Moscow left 37 dead. Two suicide bombers killed 40 in March 2010 in the Moscow metro.

False bomb scares and evacuations have since affected commercial centres, stations and other public places.