A suitcase discovered in downtown Dakar on Monday morning caused public panic before police intervened only to realize that the suspicious package contained innocuous clothes.
The items belonged to a psychiatric patient, who had recently moved in the neighbourhood.
The prefect of Dakar, Alioune Badara Samb, shortly afterwards told journalists that security operatives deployed to the scene have said the incident constituted a ‘false alarm’.
Samb said: “It was suspected that the package would contain a dangerous device”.
He said the package has been neutralized.
“We realized that it was a false alarm” the prefect said, emphasising that firefighters have made the usual checks and there was no cause for public worries.
A witness wrote on his Facebook page that one hundred policemen accompanied by firefighters had arrived at the scene after the alert raised by several people.
“However, when the deminers opened the suitcase, there were only clothes belonging to a mental patient who lives nearby,” said the witness.
ODL/cat/lb/as/APA