Europe News

Explosives, gun found in luggage from Paris-Hanoi flight

Sep 15, 2011, 5:52 GMT

Hanoi - Security staff at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport discovered 0.5 kilograms of TNT and a hunting rifle in the checked luggage of a Laotian passenger arriving from Paris, an official said Thursday.

'I was shocked when I received the news from Vietnam Airlines,' Pham Quy Tieu, Deputy Minister of Transport, told the German Press Agency dpa.

'I have asked officials to make a detailed report about the case to send to the French authorities to prevent such a terrible case happening again.'

The passenger was detained on arrival late Tuesday, and allowed to leave Vietnam the next morning after the Lao Embassy in Hanoi guaranteed the passenger's cooperation.

According to Vietnamese regulations, security staff check the baggage of all passengers who transit through the country.

An official at the Lao embassy said the traveller was a farmer who had bought the items while visiting his children in France.

He had no permit for the gun or explosives, and was detained because 'Vietnamese regulations may be different from French ones,' the official said.

The farmer simply wanted the rifle for hunting, and the TNT to make explosive bullets for it, he said. 'He has no bad intention.'

TNT is a relatively stable explosive, but its transport is regulated as a hazardous material.

Read more about France

Read more about Laos