Amsterdam Schiphol Airport partly evacuated over bomb threat

Parts of Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport have been evacuated after a man in a departure hall claimed he had a bomb, police said. 

The alert on Monday evening saw a large number of security services, including fire engines and ambulances, arrive at the airport, which was partly shut for the public.

Police said the suspect was arrested and regular service was resuming. 

Local TV station AT5 showed a picture of a man lying on the ground in departure hall 3 with security personnel standing nearby. Witnesses told AT5 that people in the hall were seen running from the scene.

Dutch police were already on high alert on Monday after five men in the Netherlands and Germany were detained on charges of planning an attack. 

The incident at Schiphol is not believed to be linked to the arrests.

Four of the suspects were to remain in custody in the city of Rotterdam, police said on Monday, and the fifth – a Syrian man arrested in the German city of Mainz – was still in custody there.

The five men were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of involvement in planning an attack.

Police said the four suspects in Rotterdam were aged between 20 and 30 and came from non-Western countries. According to Dutch broadcaster NOS, one of the men had Syrian origins, and another had origins in Egypt. Six apartments were raided, but no weapons were found.

The man arrested in Germany is a 26-year-old Syrian national registered as living in Rotterdam, according to Dutch authorities.

Dutch police have asked Germany to extradite him.

On Monday, Rotterdam police arrested another 24-year-old man on terrorism-related charges. However, the arrest was not related to those on Saturday, they said.

Police declined to comment on the report from NOS.

In June, police arrested two men in Rotterdam for allegedly plotting an attack on security forces. In September, a further seven men were arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of planning a larger attack.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies