Tourist’s order of ‘grenade’ drink sparks bomb alert in Lisbon restaurant
A tourist who wanted a pomegranate drink at a restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal last Friday got more than what he asked for because of a translation error.
The 36-year-old Russian speaker from Azerbaijan used a language app on his phone to translate the Russian word for pomegranate into Portuguese, reported The Telegraph on Monday.
In the Russian language, the words “pomegranate” and “grenade” are the same, said the report, citing Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha.
In Portuguese, however, they are two separate words – “roma” for pomegranate and “granada” for grenade – and the app gave the wrong translation.
The tourist wrote his order, which was read by a waiter who thought that he had a grenade and called the police.
Five armed police officers arrested the tourist, who was handcuffed and ordered to lie face down on the ground.
A “thorough inspection of the premises” was carried out, a police spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The tourist, who was unnamed, was taken to a nearby police station for interrogation, but was later released after he was found not in possession of any weapons. The tourist’s hotel room was also searched by the police.
In October, the Portuguese security authorities raised the country’s official terrorist threat from moderate to significant, the third-highest level. This comes after attacks by Islamic extremists in France and Belgium, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
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