Man who sparked bomb scare at busy Aussie airport breaks his silence after being ‘treated like a terrorist’
A young traveller said he was treated like a ‘terrorist’ after two innocuous items in his luggage sparked a lockdown at one of Australia’s busiest airports.
The man was travelling from Melbourne’s Avalon Airport to Sydney on Thursday when security detected a suspicious item hidden in a hot chocolate container.
Victoria’s bomb squad unit was called to the airport as passengers were evacuated, sparking an hours-long delays for the rest of the day.
On closer inspection, the item was revealed to be a laser hair removal device.
The young man, who did not want to be named, told 9News he initially followed other passengers outside during the evacuation before being approached by police.
He was taken into custody while officers tested the device and the powdered hot chocolate inside his bag.
‘This is wild. You’re being accused of being a terrorist, so that’s a pretty big deal,’ he said.
‘They didn’t really tell me what was going on. What was the suspicion, what did you find inside?’
A young traveller said he was treated like a ‘terrorist’ after two innocuous items in his luggage sparked a lockdown at one of Australia’s busiest airports
The bomb squad was called after security flagged a couple of items in a passenger’s luggage
The man was eventually cleared by security and caught a later flight to Sydney.
Passengers were let back into the terminal five hours after the items were identified.
Victoria Police Acting Inspector Nick Uebergang said the hair removal device was inside a cardboard hot chocolate container.
He said the young passenger wasn’t overly cooperative when explaining the contents of his luggage.
Inspector Uebergang said the man’s ‘confident’ attitude only fuelled more suspicion.
‘It made things difficult, we could have averted things and got out of here a lot quicker,’ Inspector Uebergang said.
‘It’s fair to say that the person that had the bag probably wasn’t too cooperative with us to start off with, which made things more difficult.
‘He wasn’t giving too much information to us about what was in his bag.’
A laser hair remover was found inside a cardboard cylinder hot chocolate container
An airport spokesman said a person had been detained after a security scare.
Avalon Airport also thanked police for their response to the incident.
‘Today’s response demonstrates the vigilance of the screening and security processes, with precautionary measures taken immediately to ensure the safety of passengers, staff and the broader community, which will always remain our highest priority,’ the airport said.
A police spokesman said the man was released without charge.
On top of the security incident, a damaged X-ray machine caused further delays at Avalon Airport, which is located 50km from the Melbourne CBD.
