A bag with the word ‘Bomb’ written on it sparked an emergency at a major international airport in Australia.
Passengers at Brisbane Airport were reportedly ushered away and the area cordoned off after a bag with ‘Bomb to Brisbane’ written on it was found at a baggage carousel on Wednesday.
A witness who had just flown in from Singapore told she thought it was a joke until the police presence at the international terminal made her realise the situation was being treated seriously.
“The area was cordoned [off] and we were quickly ushered away from it," she said.
A photo of the suspicious item supplied to Yahoo 7 News showed a black bag with white paper stuck on it that read "Bomb to Brisbane". Below this was scrawled "Mumbai" – the Indian metropolis that was known as 'Bombay' until 1995.
The international airport code for Mumbai is BOM, where the owner of the bag is believed to have boarded a plane to Brisbane.
The Australian Federal Police confirmed they were alerted to the item and its officers attended the incident but soon determined there was no danger to the public.
“The Australian Federal Police responded to reports of a suspicious item of baggage at Brisbane International Airport yesterday [Wednesday]," an AFP spokesperson told SBS Punjabi.
"An area near a baggage carousel was cordoned off and the item was examined in accordance with routine protocols, and was not deemed to be suspicious."
It’s believed the owner of the bag did not intend to cause concern with the wording on the bag and wanted it to reach the correct destination.
SBS Punjabi has contacted the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai and asked whether the item responsible for such alarm upon its arrival in Australia had attracted the attention of security when it was checked in.
Since the 9/11 attacks in the US, there have been numerous incidents of people facing serious consequences over jokingly or unwittingly uttering the word 'bomb'. In 2011, a British national was convicted for tweeting a threat to blow up an airport which he claimed was a joke resulting from his frustration over the airport closing because of heavy snow. His appeal against the conviction was rejected before it was eventually overturned in 2012.
