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| Britain |
| British airport centre of terrorism alert |
| 2010-10-29 |
| (KUNA) -- A British airport was at the centre of an international terrorism alert Friday after the discovery of a suspicious package on a cargo flight travelling from Yemen to the US. An area of East Midlands airport, central England, Britain's largest air freight terminal was sealed off after investigators found a suspicious package containing a toner cartridge on a United Parcel Service plane bound for Chicago, police said. Tests for explosives proved negative, but concerns remained that the nature of the package meant it could be a test run for a bomb. The FBI immediately ordered a search of other UPS planes arriving in the US, including another flight via East Midlands airport. Nothing was found on that plane, at Newark, in New Jersey, and it was allowed to proceed. Two other cargo flights, via Gay Paree and Cologne, were grounded at Philadelphia and the bomb squad was called out to search a UPS cargo lorry in New York. The Transportation and Security Administration said authorities were acting "out of an abundance of caution". "The planes were moved to a remote location where they are being met by law enforcement officials and swept," the TSA said. Police in the UK said East Midlands airport, near Nottingham, was continuing to operate. Earlier, it was reported that the plane had been stopped in London. The Department for Transport here said it was unaware of any incident in London, but knew about the East Midlands incident. Police evacuated a distribution centre at the airport after the package was discovered in the early hours of this morning. Officers announced that there was no threat shortly before 9am GMT, but put cordons back up again at about 13 hours GMT. "The package is being re-examined as a precaution and, as such, the cordons that were originally put in place have been reinstated," a police spokeswoman said. "This has meant that a freight distribution building and a number of offices have been closed together with internal airport roads Beverley Road and Argosy Road. "The airport continues to operate as normal and has been throughout. The safety of the public and emergency personnel remains our priority, and we are working closely with the airport and the emergency services." |
| Posted by:Fred |