Schiphol Airport Evacuated Due To Bomb Threat

Published February 13, 2012 11:09AM (EST)

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Airport police evacuated two terminals at Amsterdam's busy Schiphol Airport on Monday after receiving a bomb threat, a spokesman for the force said.

Officers evacuated two departure halls as they investigated the threat, said airport police spokesman Martijn Beelen. He gave no further details of the threat.

"There was a bomb threat and as a precaution we have evacuated departure halls one and two," Beelen said in a telephone interview.

Beelen said he did not know if the threat had caused planes to be diverted. A spokesman for the airport could not immediately be reached for comment.

Schiphol is one of Europe's busiest aviation hubs.

On Christmas Day, 2009, a Nigerian student managed to smuggle explosives onto a flight from Schiphol to Detroit after flying into Amsterdam from Lagos.

He has pleaded guilty to trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane by injecting chemicals into a package of pentrite explosive concealed in his underwear and is due to be sentenced Thursday. He faces life imprisonment.


By Salon Staff

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