The West Flemish airport was evacuated for a while this morning after several European airports received threats via email.
Some 50 staff were present at the airport when the evacuation was ordered. 150 passengers were stuck on a TUI aircraft that had been diverted from Lille in France after French airports too were evacuated. The passengers were not allowed into the airport building.
Passengers arriving for later flights were kept at a distance.
The head of the airport told VRT that the police had warned him of a specific threat against Ostend that involved an explosive device and had then ordered the evacuation.
Police conducted of sweep of the Ostend-Bruges Airport building and found nothing untoward. As a result the alert was called off.
During the evacuation a flight from Malaga (Spain) was diverted to Brussels Airport. Passengers were ferried to Ostend by bus.
