Bomb threats close airport

GERMANY’S third busiest airport was closed yesterday after receiving several bomb threats, forcing around 64,000 holiday travellers to be rerouted, German authorities said.

Dusseldorf international airport received several calls to its switchboard threatening to blow up specific aircraft and the airport, said Wolfgang Heimann, a spokesman for the German border police, in charge of airport security.

After closing down the airport at 11.35am and evacuating the terminals, officers with bomb-sniffing dogs fanned out to assess the threat, Heimann said. “One of the threats was a bomb was hidden in the airport building and is to detonate this afternoon,” Heimann said.