Namibian police found a suspect package in Windhoek airport in routine security checks during the loading of a German tourist flight to Munich, Namibian and German authorities said today.
The Windhoek airport operators said the 296 passengers and 10 crew disembarked from an Air Berlin plane and the luggage and cargo was unloaded for security checks after a suspicious parcel was discovered at the luggage screening point.
One German source said the package may have carried a label indicating it was a security test, though it was not clear who would have been responsible for carrying out this procedure.
Police in Namibia, a former German colony neighbouring South Africa with a population of around two million people, would not comment on this possibility.
"We can't confirm or deny it was a test. We will communicate the outcomes of the investigation to the public as soon as it is finished," said Namibian police inspector Jay Nangolo.
Police in Windhoek also declined to comment on information given by German federal police that the package contained a detonator, batteries and a running clock.
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, who warned one day earlier that the country faced a heightened risk of attacks by Islamic militants, said intelligence indicated "the luggage was to be transported onto a plane which was to fly to Munich".
The Namibia Airports Company said they "cannot confirm the circumstances around this suspicious parcel" but said the cargo from the Air Berlin flight had remained in Namibia pending a police investigation.
Namibian police deputy inspector general Vilio Hifindaka said the package was found in routine X-ray screening but he declined to confirm or deny that it contained explosives.
Air Berlin - Germany's second biggest airline - said the flight arrived at its destination in Germany with a six-hour delay, an Air Berlin spokeswoman said.
"The passengers on the flight, the luggage and the aircraft itself underwent further controls before take off and arrived safely in Munich overnight," said the German police statement.
Germany stepped up security measures today after saying it had received intelligence pointing to a planned attack in the country towards the end of this month.
Karl Peter Bruch, interior minister of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said many of Germany's major cities were at risk, with "concrete indications" of threats to Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and cities of the Ruhr area.
Reuters