Terror alert over Halloween costume

WASHINGTON: A soldier who tried to enter North Carolina’s Fort Bragg US Army base dressed as a suicide bomber for Halloween prompted a security alert including a search for explosives, military media said yesterday.

The unidentified soldier, wearing a costume that appeared to be an explosive vest, tried to pass a checkpoint on Saturday evening, the base said in a Facebook post, which has since been removed, according to Military.com.

The post said the incident resulted in an emergency response that consisted of the gate being briefly closed as explosive technicians cleared the site, according to the military news website.

The base removed the original Facebook post about the incident because of comments that were “profane, sophomoric, or did not treat the subject seriously,” it said in a subsequent post.

Fort Bragg has been the scene of violence in the past. A soldier killed a member of his unit and wounded another during a briefing there in 2012, before shooting and wounding himself. – Reuters