CIA Left Explosive Material on School Bus By Mistake

The CIA left “explosive training material” under the hood of a school bus in Virginia after a training exercise, according to the agency.

In a statement Thursday, the CIA said, “Last week, a CIA K-9 unit conducted a routine training exercise with law enforcement officials in Loudoun County, VA. During the exercise, explosive training material was inadvertently left by the CIA K-9 unit in one of the buses used in the exercise.”

A statement from the Loudon County Sheriff’s department goes into more detail: “During the outside portion of the training, the training material was hidden inside an engine compartment of the bus. 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 explosive material was discovered while the bus was undergoing routine maintenance on Wednesday. The bus had been in service transporting students for two days with the material in its engine compartment, but according to the CIA, “the training material did not pose a danger to passengers on the bus.”

Loudon County announced that the training program has been suspended while the CIA conducts a review of the particular K-9 program. The CIA also said it conducted a full inventory and accounted for all other explosive material used in the program.