'Bomb belt' removed from man's waist in Sweden

Stockholm: A Swedish bomb squad removed a device from around the waist of a man who claimed he was abducted and forced to wear a remote-controlled bomb, police said yesterday.

Officers evacuated buildings and blocked off streets in the northern Stockholm suburb of Tensta after the man claimed he was wearing a bomb belt. The bomb squad removed the device after six hours, police officer Diana Sundin said.

Sundin, who spoke over the telephone from the scene, said the device was taken to be detonated in a safe area. She could not confirm whether it was a genuine bomb. The man, in his late 20s, was taken to hospital and would be questioned by police, she added.

Police had arrived at the scene before noon Sunday, after members of the public reported seeing the man, police spokesman Stefan Larsson said.

About 30 officers surrounded the man and police cleared a 400-metre radius around him. Some 100 residents were evacuated from nearby buildings.

Sundin, who briefly approached and talked to the man herself, said he told police he had managed to escape from an apartment building after being held captive there for three days.

He wore a black box fastened around the waist, with wires sticking out, she said, adding that he looked frightened and was sweating profusely.

"It looked real to me," Sundin said. A subsequent police search of an apartment there uncovered material which police would investigate further, she said.