Police swoop on airport after scare

The Armed Forces were called to deal with a scare at Malta International Airport yesterday after an item of unidentified item of luggage was deemed to be suspicious.

Although it was eventually found to be innocuous, a safety area around the unaccompanied laptop bag had to be evacuated by the police and airport security personnel while the army conducted an investigation.

Suspicions were raised when an unidentified person left the bag next to the parking pay machine at Level 0 in the Welcomers’ Hall.

An airport spokesman said that it was spotted on security cameras and security personnel followed procedure for such a situation.

After an initial investigation deemed the luggage to be suspicious, the bomb disposal unit was summoned in accordance with airport security procedures.

An airport spokesman said the army calculated the size of the area that needed to be evacuated, but disruption was minimised by the fact that the suspicious package was in an area that is not normally busy with people.

“There was no panic, although the presence of the army and police meant that people were obviously aware something unusual was happening,” the spokesman said.

The investigation lasted around an hour, but no passengers or flights were affected, he added.

Police are investigating security camera footage to identify the person who left the luggage.

Sources told The Sunday Times that security personnel suspect it was left by a passenger who had exceeded their baggage allowance and had decided to dump some belongings rather than pay the excess baggage fee.

Malta International Airport thanked its security officers, the police and the Armed Forces for their assistance and reminded the public that luggage is not to be left unattended at the airport.

“The silver lining is that the incident showed our security and response procedures work very well,” the airport spokesman said.

He said it was highly unusual for the army to be called to deal with a suspicious package at the airport.