Six airports across France were evacuated on Wednesday, October 18, after emailed "threats of attack", a police source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The evacuations at Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Beauvais airport near Paris would allow authorities to "clear up any doubts" that the threats might be real, the source said.
By midday, several of these airports had received bomb threats and reports of forgotten luggage requiring intervention by the authorities. Beauvais Airport mentioned on its Facebook page "an anonymous threat received by several airports."
A spokesperson for France's DGAC aviation authority confirmed evacuations over bomb warnings only at Lille, Lyon, Toulouse and Beauvais, and was unable to give further details immediately. The DGAC's online dashboard showed significant delays at Lille, Lyon and Toulouse. A post on Nice airport's X (formerly Twitter) account said that "following an abandoned baggage item... a security perimeter was set up to allow the usual checks." "The situation has now returned to normal," it added.
Airport authorities at Lyon's Bron airport also said that the all-clear had been given. In Lille, an airport spokesperson said three flights had been diverted, while a post on its X account said security forces were on the scene.
Aéroport de Lille en cours d’évacuation suite à une alerte à la bombe.
— Aeroport de Lille✈ (@Aeroport_Lille) October 18, 2023
Les services de sécurité de l’État sont sur place.
There was confusion from passengers on social media, with some apparently in the dark about why they were being ushered out of airports.
The incidents followed other bomb threats in France since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and Friday's fatal stabbing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group.