Munich Airport Clears Terminals After Security Breach

Munich (dpa) - Police cleared large areas of Munich Airport on Tuesday after a passenger evaded a security checkpoint by passing through an emergency exit door, resulting in widespread delays and cancellations at Germany's second-busiest airport.

All of Terminal 2 and portions of Terminal 1 were cleared by police as they conducted a search for the individual, who was eventually found and taken into custody after more than two hours.

Four hours later, operations at the airport resumed, with at least 130 flights having to be cancelled entirely.

"Passengers should expect disruptions in air traffic throughout the day," the airport said in a statement. Passengers should contact their airline for further information.

According to police, the passenger causing the chaos was a Spanish man between 20 and 25 years old, who arrived on a flight from Thailand's capital Bangkok and was planning to continue on to Madrid.

Before being able to travel to the Spanish capital, he was supposed to have been re-screened. Instead, he used an emergency exit to reach an area which can only otherwise be accessed by people who have been screened.

The security breach forced travellers to be evacuated and re-screened, as police had to initiate "preventative measures" according to EU law.

After locating the passenger, police were able to determine that there had been no malicious intent, a police spokeswoman said.

An airport spokesman said there had been around 1,200 flights scheduled for Tuesday and 120,000 passengers were estimated to be at the airport. About 19,500 of those were likely affected by the disruption.

A similar incident at the airport during the height of the 2018 summer holiday season resulted in 330 flights being cancelled.

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