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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Anthony France

Flights suspended at Hamburg Airport ‘due to threat of attack on plane’

Flights were suspended at Germany’s Hamburg Airport on Monday over fears a plane with 198 passengers from the Iranian capital Tehran would be attacked.

German police descended on the aircraft when it landed to conduct a search, acting on an earlier emailed threat.

The major airport said on its website that take-offs or landings had been halted due to police measures.

The German Press Agency quoted a spokesman saying that flights had been suspended at 12.20pm local time due to a threat of attack.

Operations resumed about an hour and a half later, though the airport warned on its website that delays were still possible.

A federal police spokesperson told Reuters the measures, which included interviewing passengers and 16 crew, as normal procedure when a threat is classified as serious.

It came amid growing international tensions after Israel came under a sustained and brutal attack by Hamas gunmen.

Hundreds of Israelis were left dead - including revellers at a festival – on Saturday.

Israel responded with a wave of deadly retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

It came on the first day of a special meeting of the German and French governments in Hamburg, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron both attending.

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