Asia-Pacific News

Australian police defend closing Perth airport

May 4, 2008, 8:21 GMT

Sydney - Australian authorities Sunday defended their decision to shut Perth's international airport terminal for 12 hours after a security alert that proved unfounded. The terminal was cleared Saturday after baggage handlers decided unaccompanied freight on a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur was suspicious. It took police nine hours to X-ray the cardboard boxes and rule that they were harmless. 'It was a major operation, it was an operation that caused ... considerable inconvenience to the travelling public, to the staff at the airport, to government agencies that responded, and that's regrettable,' John McRoberts, assistant commissioner of counter-terrorism and state protection, told national broadcaster ABC. 'But I think people ought to take some comfort in the fact that the safety of everybody was of paramount concern to us.' More than 3,000 travellers were evacuated from the terminal and held at an exclusion zone two kilometres from the airport buildings. McRoberts declined to say why the packages were suspicious or what was in them. They were part of a consignment for someone in Perth.

On the Web

Blowing Up Blogs

Place your ad here
Loading...

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in Asia-Pacific

Older Talkback

Asia-Pacific: Index

: News; Features

Like M&C on Facebook

Custom Search

Viral Web

In Monsters and Critics

: Arts; Books; DVD; Gaming; Lifestyle; Movies; Music; News; People; Science & Nature; Sport; TV; Archives
Other Languages and Sites: Deutschland (Monsters and Critics); The Tech Herald; Free Games Herald; XPRNC; Deutschland (Der Technikbote); Deutschland (Bellalu)

Entertainment: Arts; Books; DVD; Gaming; Movies; Music; People; Soundtracks; TV
Media: Celebrity Photos; Movie Pictures; Movie Trailers; Movie Posters; Theatre Stills
Released this week: Movies - USA; Movies - UK; DVD - USA
Distractions: Online Games; Daily Crossword; Sudoku Classic; Daily Jigsaw

World News: US; UK; Americas; Europe; Middle East; Asia Pacific; South Asia; Africa; Business; Education; Health
Science and Tech: Science and Nature; Technology
Lifestyle: Autos; Fashion; Life; Travel

Corporate

: About; Advertise; Contact; The Team; Vacancies; Privacy; RSS; Site Map; Terms; Webmasters

The Fine Print

© 2003 - 2012 by Monsters and Critics.com, WotR Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All photos are copyright their respective owners and are used under license or with permission. * Note M&C cannot be held responsible for the content on other Web Sites.

Servers supplied by Servint