Paris: The busy Gare Du Nord train station here was briefly evacuated by authorities on Friday after a purported explosive device was found hidden inside an unattended bag, amid a heightened alert following a series of stabbing attacks across Europe earlier in the day.
Scores of commuters were asked to vacate the station premises after the bag was discovered, following several false alarms earlier, railway company SNCF was quoted by Russia Today as saying.
Police provided sketchy information regarding the same, but have since given the all-clear.
SNCF said that passengers were forced to wait outside the station for about 40 minutes and added that other lines in the city were not affected due to the incident.
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Unverified images of the device, resembling a mortar shell, have been doing the rounds on social media. Some have said that the object is a non-explosive dummy round used by the military for training.
The incident comes in the backdrop of two stabbing attacks with the first one occurring in London, where two people were killed and three others were injured, while three civilians were wounded in The Hague in the Netherlands.
While the male suspect has been shot dead by the police in London, police are hunting for the accused in The Hague in connection with the stabbing.
