Girl (14) questioned over American Airlines Twitter threat

Dutch police said today they were questioning a 14-year-old girl in connection with an apparent threat she sent to American Airlines via Twitter over the weekend.

A spokeswoman for Rotterdam police said the girl, who has not been named but who called herself Sarah on the social networking site, had addressed a tweet to the US-based airline implying she was a militant planning an attack.

"hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye," she wrote on Sunday from the account @Queen_Demetriax, which Twitter now shows as suspended.

Police spokeswoman Tinet De Jong said the girl was being questioned in the company of a relative at a police station in Rotterdam after Twitter had disclosed to them the internet address from which she had written the message.

“We are asking her right now why she sent out these messages,” she said, adding that police had asked the airline if it wanted to press charges.

“Much will depend on whether or not she’s done anything like this before,” Ms De Jong said, saying it would be for prosecutors to decide what if any charges she should face.

American Airlines replied to the girl in a tweet that has since been deleted, saying her details would be passed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“omfg I was kidding... I’m so sorry I’m scared now,” the girl replied.

A British man who joked four years ago that he would blow an airport “sky high” after it closed because of snow had his conviction for sending a “menacing” message overturned on appeal after a two-year legal battle.

Reuters