Polish robbers go a bridge too far

WARSAW (AFP) - Polish police said they had found the remnants of a 200-metre-long, 360 tonne bridge which had been stolen and then sold to a scrap metal yard.

Danuta Wolk-Karaczewska, a police spokeswoman in the coastal city of Gdansk, said the 1.8-million-zloty (410,000-euro, 501,000-dollar) metal bridge had been packed up in pieces waiting to be taken to be placed when it disappeared earlier this month.

It was found by police at a scrap metal yard cut into metre-long pieces, she was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.

In order to carry all the parts of the bridge the robbers would have had to use 15 lorries, or make 15 separate trips, PAP said, leading police to suspect officials at the place where the bridge was stored of the crime.