Schiphol Airport Evacuated After Bomb Threat
Two main terminals at Amsterdam's busy Schiphol airport were shut down Monday due to a bomb threat that was made, according to military police.
"We have evacuated the terminals and are investigating the report of a bomb. The area has been sealed," said Robert van Kapel, an official with the Dutch military police unit, stationed at the airport. Kapel did add that "security has been increased at the airport."
There were reports from local media that an unidentified man had locked himself in a bathroom in one of the locked down terminals claiming to have a bomb. When asked, Kapel stated he could not comment on the reports.
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Terminals one and two, which happen to be the international terminals were evacuated according to representatives from Schiphol airport.
Monday afternoon military personnel armed with automatic weapons were patrolling the area. A bomb squad had arrived while hundreds of travelers were waiting outside the airport. Ambulances and fire trucks were on scene as a precaution, according to AP.
On Schiphol's website there were dozens of flights delayed and some even canceled.
A woman who was filmed by local news, AT5 television, was trying to leave the airport and stated that her flight to Geneva had been canceled and was told about a man claiming to have a bomb in the bathroom.
Schiphol is one of Europe's busiest airports with around 40 million passengers per year.
There is a train route that runs under the airport in a tunnel, but it was not affected, a spokesman for rail network operator ProRail said.
On Christmas Day, 2009, a Nigerian student smuggled explosives onto a flight from Schiphol to Detroit after flying into Amsterdam from Lagos.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to destroy the Northwest Airlines plane by combining chemicals into a package of explosives concealed in his underwear. He faces life imprisonment at his sentencing.
