Thai police arrest German in airport gun scare

Thai police arrested a German man after a handgun was found in his check-in luggage as he boarded a domestic flight, police said today.

Hans Schmidt, 41, of Nurnberg in southern Germany, was arrested on Monday as he was about to get on a Thai Airways flight in the southern city of Surat Thani for Bangkok, about 330 miles away.

An airport X-ray machine detected a .38-calibre pistol hidden inside a video compact disc player, which had been modified to hold the gun. The player was packed among clothes inside a large travelling bag being checked in for the flight, police said.

Police said they also found 16 tablets of methamphetamine and a small amount of heroin on Schmidt.

‘‘He is initially facing charges of illegal possession of a firearm and drugs,’’ police Major Pornthep Puthileucha said. Illegal possession of firearms is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in jail.

Pornthep said police were in touch with Interpol to check Schmidt’s record for any links with a terrorist organisation.

Schmidt had entered Thailand on a tourist visa. He told police that he bought the gun from a Thai man and had intended to take it back to Germany as a souvenir.

Police said the suspect was being detained pending further investigation and would later be charged formally in court.