Police evacuate Manchester airport terminal over suspicious bag

2011-09-21 18:05:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANCHESTER (BNO NEWS) -- Police evacuated the main terminal at Manchester Airport in England on Wednesday morning after the discovery of a suspicious bag. A man is being questioned.

Police said Terminal 1 at the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom was evacuated after police were made aware of a suspicious bag at around 10.20 a.m. local time, although officials do not believe the bag contains anything harmful.

"We were alerted to a suspicious device and as a precaution have evacuated Terminal 1," said Superintendent Phil Davies, police commander at the Airport. "This is not a decision that is taken lightly but the safety of passengers and staff is our primary concern."

Davies said police are working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation without compromising the ongoing operation, which involves bomb disposal experts. "I must stress that at this time the item is being treated as a suspicious device and nothing more," he said.

Nonetheless, police said a man is being interviewed under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to stop people at ports and airports for up to nine hours without the need for reasonable suspicion that they are involved in any crime.

In a statement, Manchester Airport said disruption is possible to a total of eleven flights which were scheduled to depart from Terminal 1 on Wednesday morning. "Passengers travelling from Terminal 1 are advised to come to the airport as planned. Arriving flights are not affected," the statement said, adding that terminals 2 and 3 are operating normally.

In September 2010, police also evacuated terminal 1 at Manchester Airport due to the discovery of a suspicious bag. Around 1,200 passengers and 20 flights were affected by the disruption, which lasted about three hours before the bag was declared safe.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-09-21

Such a headline and nobody has made a wife or mother in law joke yet!