Police evacuated Dublin International Airport on Friday for the second time this week over a hoax bomb scare.
Irish army explosives experts blew open a bag that had been abandoned in the airport's arrivals hall. Police said they found no explosive device inside the bag, only a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and packets of medicine.
The threat - which the Dublin Airport Authority said was accompanied by an anonymous telephone warning to airport staff - forced several thousand passengers and airport employees to flee the main terminal building for two hours. A similar evacuation happened Tuesday, when police arrested a 48-year-old Dublin man who had been holding a bag over his head and claiming he had a bomb. That bag contained clothes and papers.
Friday's alert caused traffic gridlock around the airport in suburban north Dublin, and also on the airport tarmac, where more than 20 planes landed during the terminal shutdown.
Vincent Wall, spokesman for the Dublin Airport Authority, said most flights in and out of the airport would suffer delays for the rest of Friday.
