‘Prop’ causes US bomb scare

A SUSPICIOUS device that caused a bomb scare for rail workers in the US was most likely a prop from a Denzel Washington movie, a sheriff said.

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said the device, resembling two sticks of dynamite with wires, was detonated by a bomb squad and turned out to be harmless.

Abdalla told media in Steubenville, Ohio, that he suspected it was a prop left behind by a film crew that was in the area earlier this year making Unstoppable, a thriller about a runaway train.

Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway workers had found the item earlier in the day along tracks near Rayland, about 190 kilometres east of Columbus.