German police evacuated a popular Christmas market in the city of Potsdam on Friday before destroying a suspicious package containing nails and an unidentified powder in a controlled explosion, officials said. Brandenburg state's top security official, Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter, said it also held a large firecracker without a fuse, Germany's dpa news agency reported on Friday night. Schroeter told reporters at the scene earlier that nails and a powder were inside the parcel. Residents of the street were told to stay in the back of their homes while the procedure was carried out. Christmas markets are extremely popular in Germany and have increased security this year following the deadly truck attack at a market in downtown Berlin last December.

Source: ABC News December 01, 2017 16:47 UTC