In the same month that the deportation of the 1,500 Jews of the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv began, the local bishop, Metropolitan Kiril, succeeded in halting it. Kiril sent a personal telegram to the king begging for his mercy towards the Jews and contacted the head of the local police, threatening to end his loyalty towards Bulgaria and to act as he wished. Further testimony claims that he threatened to lie across the railway tracks in order to stop the deportation. When told that his actions had proved successful and that this deportation order had been cancelled he rushed to the Jewish school—which the authorities had turned into a roundup point for the Jews—and told them the good news.