SOFIA, August 8, 2008 (AFP) - A bomb threat forced the evacuation of a train travelling between Sofia and the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna Friday in Svoge, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the capital, police said.

The railway authority added that an explosive device may have been placed in the lavatories in one of the carriages.

Another train on the outskirts of Sofia also received a bomb threat Friday, and had to be evacuated, police said.

Sofia's main train station had already been evacuated Thursday in a similar alert.

On Thursday morning, two home-made bombs exploded outside two branches of a chain store in Varna, but nobody was injured.