Bomb threats on flights in Europe cause disruption but no devices found

WARSAW, Nov 3 (Reuters) – At least four flights in Europe were subjected to bomb threats on Tuesday after one on Monday, forcing some to divert and an airport in Poland to briefly close, although no confirmed devices were discovered.

Authorities diverted a LOT flight from London that was meant to land at Warsaw’s Chopin airport to another nearby airport, Modlin, which was briefly closed while the plane was searched. Modlin airport said it had reopened after no device was found.

Another Warsaw-bound flight, an SAS flight from Copenhagen, landed at Chopin as scheduled. Chopin airport said no device was found and the airport remained operational.

In the Bulgarian capital Sofia, a plane flying from Israel landed after a bomb threat was received by email. Counter-terrorism units were checking the plane for possible explosive devices, BTA news agency quoted Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov as saying.

A day earlier, a Wizz Air flight from London to Sofia was diverted to Budapest airport after receiving a bomb threat, Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said in a Facebook post.

Parts of an airport in Murcia, in southeastern Spain, were cordoned off on Tuesday after a bomb threat was reported on a Ryanair flight from Manchester. But officials said the report proved to be a hoax, and the airport resumed normal operations after authorities found no explosives on board.

(Reporting by Alicja Surdy, Anna Koper and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom, Louise Rasmussen and Emma Pinedo; Editing by Peter Graff)