Parcel in Namibia airline bomb scare a laptop: police

Namibian police have identified as a laptop the suspect parcel which was on Wednesday intercepted among the luggage of a German-bound plane at the country’s main airport, officials said on Thursday.

“It was a laptop bag wrapped in plastic, which was then opened,” police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga told national radio, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

“Our officers found the parcel suspicious as it did not have a travel tag and it was thus removed from the luggage,” said Ndeitunga.

The LTU/Air Berlin flight number AB 7377 to Munich with 296 passengers and 10 crew members was scheduled to fly from Hosea Kutako International Airport, some 40 kilometres east of the capital Windhoek.

The parcel which was earlier suspected to be a bomb was on unaccompanied luggage, police said.

“It was a routine check but our vigilance at airports is always higher. More investigations are ongoing, we expect this process to take not less than a week,” Ndeitunga told NBC.

The deputy head of mission of the German embassy in Namibia, Matthias Hansen, said the embassy was aware of the incident.

“It is known to us and there is close contact between the Namibian Police and German police,” Hansen told AFP.

The threat came after German government hiked security measures at rail stations, airports and other public spaces Wednesday after a tip-off from a “foreign partner” about an attack planned this month.