Suspicious luggage discovered at Prague Airport prompts evacuation

Authorities at Prague’s Václav Havel Airport were put on high alert Thursday night after suspicious luggage was discovered on a plane bound for London.

According to police, the discovery of the suspicious luggage on a Ryanair plane, which was about to depart for London Stansted Airport, led to the immediate evacuation of the plane and its surrounding area. “There is suspicious luggage, and a bomb-disposal search will follow, which was preceded by the evacuation of the aircraft and the wider surroundings,” the police said in a statement.

The airport’s spokeswoman, Eva Krejčí, confirmed that a crisis committee had been convened to address the situation. “Due to the discovery, the plane and its wider surroundings were evacuated,” she told the ČTK news agency.

Local news outlet Zdopravy.cz reported that a ticking sound was heard coming from one piece of luggage on the plane. However, the police later announced that no dangerous items were found after a thorough investigation.

The incident caused significant disruption at the airport, with check-in at Terminal 2 being suspended for “operational and technical reasons,” according to the airport’s announcement on the X network. Some departures were also delayed, mostly by tens of minutes.

By around 7:30 p.m., the airport reported that check-in had been restored, but there was no immediate information on whether the evacuated flight to London had departed.

The incident at Prague Airport comes on the heels of a separate security scare in Austria, where authorities averted a potential terrorist attack on Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna.

The Austrian Interior Ministry has confirmed that a 19-year-old Austrian suspect planned to carry out an attack using explosives with the intention of causing harm to as many people as possible on either Thursday or Friday. Investigators have revealed that the suspect confessed to planning the crime and also considered using stabbing weapons.

There were sold-out concerts scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with each concert expecting around 65,000 attendees. Additionally, authorities anticipated that there would be between 15,000 to 20,000 fans of the pop singer in the area.

In response to the threat, the Czech Foreign Ministry has recommended that Czech citizens staying in Austria “take extra care, especially in busy places.” The ministry also advised monitoring local news reports and respecting the security forces’ instructions.

“Although the specific threat has been minimized, Austrian authorities say the security situation remains very serious,” the ministry said in a message on the Drozd travel system.