Students in Virginia were put at risk last week when the Central Intelligence Agency accidentally left explosive training material in a school bus following a training exercise.
The material had been placed in the bus as part of an exercise for CIA K-9 units to practice detecting explosives in Loudoun County, Virginia.
“At some point, a portion of the material from the container appears to have been dislodged from the container and fell into the engine compartment of the bus and was not recovered following the training,” the department said.
Department officials stressed that the material was incredibly stable and that no students were in danger, according to ABC News.
Following the training exercise, the bus transported elementary and high school students to and from school on March 28 and March 29 while the explosive material was under the bus hood. A spokesman for Loudoun County Schools said a special blasting cap would have been needed to detonate the explosives. All the busses used in the exercise were searched following the discovery.
School officials contacted the families of the 26 students who rode the bus and sent out an alert to 80,000 students and staff.
The CIA promised to strengthen inventory and control procedures in its K-9 program to prevent future mishaps.
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