Men with knives held at airport

TWO men prevented from boarding a Ryanair plane at Stansted Airport in England after knives were found in their bags were last night being questioned by police.

Security staff raised the alarm after they found the blades in the men’s hand luggage.

The finds came amid heightened security fears around air travel on the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist atrocities tomorrow.

British police, who were continuing to question the men and four others from the flight, said they were treating the incident “very seriously” and refused to rule out any links to terrorism.

But a source close to the investigation played down the alert, saying they thought it was a “coincidence” that knives were being carried by two separate passengers, and that it was probably a case of “blatant stupidity” on their part.

A total of six men were stopped from boarding the plane after a small knife was found in the first man’s hand luggage as it was put through a scanner.

A folding lock-knife was discovered in the second man’s bags. They were thought to be travelling separately. The men were stopped as they tried to board the 7am Ryanair flight to Oslo in Norway.

The first man was a 34-year-old British national and the second man, said to be “of Eastern appearance”, was 43, police said.

Police could not confirm if he was from the Middle or Far East, but said he was travelling as part of a group of five.

His four travelling companions were also stopped from boarding the plane, and the luggage of all six was unloaded.

Finds such as these are not rare at airports as security remains tight since the September 11 attacks. One tonne of items such as swords, hatchets and cutlery are confiscated from passengers departing Irish airports each month.

In one five-minute period in a Dublin Airport in the last few months, 10 pairs of scissors were found in hand luggage at just one X-ray machine. A spokeswoman for Aer Rianta said this caused delays and queues for other passengers, and most of the confiscated materials were destroyed.

Yesterday British police said there was nothing to suggest that the two men found with knives knew each other.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We regret the inconvenience but we must take stringent precautions regarding passenger safety and we are sure the public understand.”

A Ryanair spokesperson: “A prohibited item was found by security staff on one of the passengers who was detained by police prior to boarding. Security staff at the airport and the police are now interviewing a number of passengers about the incident.

“As a precaution, all passengers were asked to leave the aircraft. A full security search of the aircraft was carried before clearing it to return to service.”