DHAKA: Dangerous radioactive medical material taken when a truck was stolen in Mexico has been found, local officials say.

The material, cobalt-60, was removed from a protective casing and then abandoned nearby.

The thieves may have been exposed to life-threatening radiation levels, but there is no health risk for local residents, the officials say, reports the BBC.

The material and the truck were found close to where they had been stolen near Mexico City on Monday.

The radioactive material was discovered near the town of Hueypoxtla, officials from Mexico’s National Nuclear Security Commission said. It was barely 2km from where the truck had been stolen.

‘We found the radioactive source removed from its container and left between 500 and 700 metres,’ NNSC official Mardonio Jimenez said.

But he warned that whoever had opened could die ‘because the source’s intensity is very high’.

‘They will eventually have to go to a hospital, and we`ll be waiting for them,’ Jimenez said.

He stressed that the radioactive material was now in the hands of the authorities.

The military has now sealed off the area.

BDST: 1410 HRS, DEC 05, 2013