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Schiphol airport: False alarm causes Amsterdam security alert | |
(32 minutes later) | |
A false report of an airline hijacking sparked a large police response on board a plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday evening. | |
Dutch police tweeted at about 19:30 (18:30 GMT) that they were investigating a "suspicious situation". | |
Part of the airport, which is one of Europe's busiest, was closed to passengers as officials investigated. | |
But after people were evacuated from the plane, Air Europa announced a pilot had accidentally set off an alert. | |
"False alarm. In the flight Amsterdam-Madrid this afternoon was activated, by mistake, a warning that triggers protocols on hijackings at the airport," the airline tweeted. | |
"Nothing has happened, all passengers are safe and sound waiting to fly soon. We deeply apologize." | |
Amid the panic, images posted on social media showed parts of the airport's D-pier cordoned off to the public. | |
Flights still landed at other parts of the airport during the disruption, but some emergency services were called to the tarmac. | |
The incident was described as a GRIP-3 situation, Dutch officials said, meaning an incident or serious event with major consequences to a local population. | The incident was described as a GRIP-3 situation, Dutch officials said, meaning an incident or serious event with major consequences to a local population. |
Schiphol is one of the busiest transport hubs in Europe, handling more than 70 million passengers a year. | Schiphol is one of the busiest transport hubs in Europe, handling more than 70 million passengers a year. |