An Indian woman whose bag with the word ‘Bomb’ written on it sparked a security scare at Brisbane Airport on Wednesday says it was an innocent mistake.
65-year-old Venkata Lakshmi arrived at Brisbane from Mumbai and was questioned by the Australian Federal Police about her bag emblazoned with words ‘Bomb to Brisbane’.
“They asked her to open her bag and it had all the regular stuff you know parents bring from India for their children,” Mrs Lakshmi’s daughter Devi Jothiraj said.
She said the AFP officers were satisfied by her explanation after they spoke to her through a Hindi translator, and let her go without charge.
Ms Jothiraj told SBS Punjabi that she had advised her mother to paste a label on her bag with her name and address to help her find it when she arrived in Brisbane, anticipating crowds at the international terminal because of the Commonwealth Games.
The bag that sparked bomb scare at Brisbane airport. Source: 7 News
“She has visited Australia four times before and my sister used to help her with packing etc. But this time my sister wasn’t there so she had to do it herself,” she said.
“Everyone knows Mumbai was called Bombay, my mother was writing Bombay and realised it won't fit so she wrote ‘Mumbai’ underneath.”
Mrs Lakshmi's bag had not raised any concern with airport security when she checked it in at the beginning of her journey in Mumbai.
A spokesperson for Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport confirmed the label saying 'bomb to Brisbane' had been attached to the bag when it departed India, but did not comment on whether it had attracted any special attention.
Ms Jothiraj said some social media comments over the incident had upset her mother.
“First we also had a good laugh at it but after it went viral and many media outlets published it even in India, people started commenting things like, ‘oh these Indians don’t know anything’ are not in good taste,” she said.
“It’s a mistake anyone could make and she didn’t intend to cause any panic.
"I hope now people will get over it. It [the comments] doesn't feel right".
She thanked the AFP for being helpful to her mother.
“I personally apologise for all the confusion that it caused."
The Australian Federal Police confirmed its officers responded to reports of a suspicious item of baggage at Brisbane Airport on Wednesday and that the bag did not contain anything harmful.
