BANG! There goes the Belgian postman's bike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's postal service has asked its delivery men to hand back the batteries on their electric bicycles after one of them exploded.

"Last week, we had one battery on one bicycle, smoke came out and the postman immediately stopped and he took away the battery and it exploded," said a spokesman for bpost on Wednesday.

Around 2,000 Belgian postmen were using electrical bicycles but they have all now been asked to hand back the batteries.

It follows a fire in another Belgian post office where batteries were being recharged overnight, although it is still unclear if a battery caused the fire, the spokesman said.

"The electrical bicycles can still be used without the battery, so the vast majority of the rounds that are impacted are still being done by the postmen with the bicycles but without the batteries," he said.

The batteries are currently being checked by the manufacturer and will be replaced if necessary and returned in about two months.