Airport security breach

Police are still looking for the man whose laptop set off a security alert at Munich's airport on Wednesday.

About 1,200 police fanned out to search the airport's Terminal 2 building Wednesday afternoon and evening after a security device flagged a man's computer as possibly containing explosive material.

The man left the scene soon after, and authorities have not been able to find him. Now they say he was likely a passenger running to catch his plane, and not a threat. An airport spokesman told news agency AFP that such a false alarm can be triggered by harmless chemicals such as perfume.

The airport was closed for approximately three hours but has since reopened.

At around 3:30 pm, an airport security device had alerted officials to possible explosives in the laptop, but the man then proceeded through security control with his laptop before officials could take a second look.

Police ordered a level of Terminal 2 of the airport closed as officers searched for the man. But neither he or the laptop were found. The police said it was possible that he gone through security without realizing that further inspections were required. Video images of the man have been secured to aid the search.

Around 60 domestic and international flights were delayed or cancelled.

Call for security overhaul

Josef Scheuring, chairman of the German police union, has called for a complete investigation into the security procedures at all German airports.

Scheuring told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that such security gaps were unacceptable.

"If you're checking someone, you have to be able to hold onto him," he said. He suspected that there had been either too few security staff on duty, or they were not properly trained.

Airports across the world have been on heightened security since a Nigerian man allegedly attempted to detonate an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last Christmas.

svs/acb/dpa/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Susan Houlton