Edinburgh airport re-opens after suspicious package was found
Passengers were evacuated at 2pm and bomb disposal experts are at the scene
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Edinburgh airport has re-opened after police concluded there was no threat after a security alert.
Around 100 travellers were evacuated to a nearby car-ark at around 2pm Tuesday afternoon, after a suspicious package was discovered in the terminal building.
Others who had already passed through security remained in the departures lounge.
Passengers on flights that landed around the time of the alert were left on planes and later moved to a nearby hotel, while roads around the airport were closed.
Outbound flights to the Northern Isles, London, Paris and the East Midlands were cancelled with many others delayed, while inbound flights from London, Brussels, Tenerife, Manchester, Birmingham and Belfast were also stopped.
Bomb disposal experts attended the scene, but police concluded that there was no threat and the airport has since reopened.
However, disruption to flights is expected to continue.
Chief Inspector David Campbell said: "As part of a routine bag search at the airport, suspicions were raised about the contents of one item of hand luggage and the decision was taken to evacuate the airport while the appropriate inquiries could be carried out.
"We are now satisfied there isn't, nor was there ever, any risk to the public and the airport will now begin to reopen.
"We would like to thank the public for their patience and co-operation during the emergency service response."
Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said at around 7:30pm on Tuesday evening: "The challenge now will be to get the airport back up to full operation.
"We'll do that relatively quickly but inevitably passengers and aircraft may not be where we need them and it will be a number of hours yet before we can get to some normality.
"We know this causes huge disruption and upset to people, we have done our best to mitigate that and make people as comfortable as possible in the circumstances but it's a cold wet day in Edinburgh, there's limited facilities when the terminal is shut and we just want to make sure people can now get away on their travels as best as possible.
"All we can do now is keep people informed, try to help the airlines get back to normality and get as many people away on their journey as possible," he said.
Additional reporting by PA
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments