Traffic disrupted at Rome airport for false bomb alarm

Air traffic was disrupted for hours at the Fiumicino Rome airport in Italy on Wednesday evening due to a false bomb alarm on a Niki flight bound for Vienna, local report said.

Anti-terrorism procedures were put in place and air traffic was blocked at the airport after a passenger of the departing flight said there was a bomb inside the aircraft, la Repubblica newspaper said.

The threat was later found to be a false alarm. The man who raised the alarm, first believed to be from an Arab country, was later ascertained by police to be a Slovenian national and was arrested for false report.

According to la Repubblica, the man told police his words were misunderstood by two Italian passengers who were not fluent in English.

Terror alert has been raised to the maximum level in major cities in Italy around possible sensitive targets such as airports, public offices and Jewish districts after the shootings that killed 17 people in Paris last week. Endit