Cleaning crew finds stolen bag with medical transplant in Germany

A cleaning crew in the northern German city of Emden has found a suitcase containing medical transplant material a day after it was stolen from a courier bringing it to a recipient in France, German police reported on Wednesday.

The suitcase containing bone marrow - earlier reports had said it was a kidney - went missing on Tuesday in Siegburg after thieves distracted the courier during a train stop in the western German city of Siegburg.

It was assumed the thieves did not know the contents of the suitcase when they took it.

Cleaning crews discovered the suitcase later that day on a train in Emden, which is 350 kilometres north of the site of the theft. Police said the suitcase's cooling unit was still working, meaning the marrow could likely still be transplanted.

The marrow - usually used to treat leukaemia - was to be delivered to a hospital in the French city of Strasbourg for a transplant operation.