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Edinburgh airport reopened after security alert prompts evacuation Edinburgh airport reopened after security alert prompts evacuation
(35 minutes later)
Edinburgh airport has reopened to passengers after being evacuated on Tuesday afternoon due to a security alert. Flights for hundreds of airline passengers were delayed on Tuesday after Edinburgh airport was closed down by the discovery of a suspect bag by security scanners.
Flights were cancelled and inbound aircraft diverted after police identified a "potentially suspicious bag" at 1.50pm. Bomb disposal experts were called to the scene. Approximately 15 flights were delayed or rerouted after bomb squad officers were scrambled to investigate the suspicious bag on Tuesday afternoon, leading to police sealing off the airport, stopping all flights, and setting up a 100-metre wide security cordon around the terminal. Later in the day, Police Scotland said the airport would reopen with cordons and road restrictions lifted imminently.
Some passengers congregated in a nearby car park while others were moved to a nearby hotel. Police urged others not to travel to the airport One of the UK's busiest regional airports, the closure lead to gridlock on approach roads as passengers and drivers were stopped from approaching the terminal building by police.
Police Scotland said the airport would begin to reopen with cordons and road restrictions lifted "imminently". The incident was sparked off at about 1.50pm after a security scanner in departures detected the suspicious bag, leading to a partial evacuation of the terminal building. There were unconfirmed reports its contents resembled an improvised explosive device and that a male passenger had minute residues of explosives on his hands.
Chief Inspector David Campbell said: "As part of a routine bag search at the airport, suspicions were raised about the contents of one item of hand luggage and the decision was taken to evacuate the airport while the appropriate inquiries could be carried out. At 3.30pm the entire airport was officially closed, with the alert lifted about two hours later. Police disclosed the bag's contents were deemed to be safe after a thorough examination.
"We are now satisfied there isn't, nor was there ever, any risk to the public and the airport will now begin to reopen. We would like to thank the public for their patience and co-operation during the emergency service response." Chief Inspector David Campbell, from the force's border policing division, said: "As part of a routine bag search at the airport, suspicions were raised about the contents of one item of hand luggage and the decision was taken to evacuate the airport while the appropriate inquiries could be carried out.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of the airport, told Sky News that police found there was no threat and efforts were now being made to return the airport to normal. "We are now satisfied there isn't, nor was there ever, any risk to the public and the airport will now begin to reopen."
Dewar told Sky News: "Round about 2pm we had an unidentified threat that triggered an investigation in terms of being an issue of airport security. The airport warned travellers that flights would not resume until after 8pm. Gordon Dewar, the airport chief executive, said no threat had been found, but he added it would take some time to reopen the airport.
"Unfortunately that meant as part of that we had to evacuate the terminal building so it's effectively been closed since about 2.15pm and we've not been able to operate as normal. Several flights which had already landed were stopped from disembarking passengers, including one Ryanair service from Alicante in Spain, with frustrated travellers left on planes which were parked on the apron and taxiways away from the terminal.
"Clearly in that time there has been a very extensive investigation with police and authorities and I'm delighted to say that they've now concluded that there is no threat. Carlos Martinez, a passenger on the Alicante flight which landed just after 2pm, tweeted: "Hi! The plane's been allowed to 'park' but we're not allowed off and cabin crew say all they know is the airport's shut down."
"We know this causes huge disruption and upset to people, we have done our best to mitigate that and make people as comfortable as possible in the circumstances but it's a cold wet day in Edinburgh, there's limited facilities when the terminal is shut and we just want to make sure people can now get away on their travels as best as possible. Ryanair then temporarily suspended and rerouted flights to the Scottish capital. Affected flights included services coming in from Amsterdam, Munich and Berlin.
"All we can do now is keep people informed, try to help the airlines get back to normality and get as many people away on their journey as possible."
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