Mystery of origin – gas bottles were full, but contents still unclear

It remains exciting: Wednesday it must be clear whether the two gas cylinders that were brought to the police station in Gmunden by the director of a waste processing company in Pinsdorf on Friday really contain the deadly gas phosgene. In any case, it will be interesting for the head of the company, because it is suspected that he could have been guilty of negligent threats.

First thought of explosives
“Colleagues initially thought that explosives were involved. When one of our explosives experts saw a photo, it was clear that it was gas,” says Markus Kreilmeier, explosives and contaminants expert at the state police headquarters in Upper Austria. The gas cartridges, each weighing 1680 grams, were housed in a red plastic container and were marked with a distinctive red skull and crossbones. It also contained phosgene. The manager stated that he discovered the box and cartridges in a warehouse. How they got there is not clear to him .

“Was a decent amount”
“My colleagues have calculated it: one bottle contains 438 grams of gas, the second 232 grams. That is a considerable amount,” says Kreilmeier. If one of the two gas cartridges had leaked, the office could have turned into a morgue.

„We await investigative orders”
The gas cartridges were immediately taken to the police station, where there was a shielded area of ​​25 to 50 meters downwind. They were then secured by police officers in protective suits, later rounded up by the army and taken to the ABC center in Korneuburg, where they are to be analyzed on Wednesday. “We are waiting for investigative orders from the prosecutor’s office in Wels,” said army colonel Jürgen Schlechter.