Flights diverted or delayed, terminals evacuated, doubts raised but not yet everywhere: at least ten airports were evacuated on Wednesday in France after threats of attacks, causing significant disruptions, particularly in Toulouse and Bordeaux, which remain closed.
After the Louvre Museum and the Palace of Versailles, the latter still evacuated on Wednesday, bomb threats are increasing five days after the attack which cost the life of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras.
Around 2 p.m., four French airports were at a standstill, according to the air traffic monitoring organization Eurocontrol: Toulouse, Beauvais, Bordeaux and Pau. The two Paris airports, Orly and Charles-de-Gaulle, were not affected. Those from Lille, Lyon (Bron), Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, Beauvais received threats by email, according to a police source. “Respectively at 11:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 12:15 p.m. the airports of Nice, Lyon Bron and Lille gradually resumed their activity, the doubt being removed,” a second police source told AFP.
The Pyrénées-Atlantiques prefecture then added that “similar events” had taken place in Pau and Biarritz which are the subject of preventive evacuation and removal of doubt procedures “following a bomb threat” . “No serious threat has been identified at this stage,” said the prefecture.
A spokeswoman for Strasbourg airport told AFP that it was also being evacuated at midday, after receiving “a malicious email”. Around ten flights were initially planned for the afternoon and around a thousand passengers were expected.
Disturbances in Toulouse
A spokesperson for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) confirmed late in the morning that there had been “bomb threats” and “evacuations from terminals” on four platforms: Lille, Lyon, Toulouse and Beauvais (north of Paris).
According to the DGAC’s online dashboard, Toulouse-Blagnac airport accounted for most of the delays shortly after 1:30 p.m.: more than three hours on arrival and almost two hours on takeoff. The delays which reached an hour and a half in Lille at midday were resolved and those in Beauvais-Tillé were reduced to half an hour on arrival.
Thousands of people were still scattered outside the terminal at 1:20 p.m., noted an AFP journalist on site. “The inspection of the airport is in progress,” indicated the communication service of Blagnac airport, confirming that deminers were on site. The end of the inspection and the start of the resumption of activity are planned “in the middle of the afternoon”, he added.
Traffic was also “disrupted” with “a risk of congestion” around the airport, underlined Bison Futé, advising to avoid the area. Toulouse-Blagnac airport was the seventh busiest airport in France in 2022, with seven million passengers, according to the Union of French Airports.
Back to normal
According to communication from Nice airport, there “was just an alert about the suspicious package, something frequent, which required the establishment of a security perimeter. But everything is back to normal” . “The prefecture has given a favorable opinion for staff and passengers to re-enter the airport,” Lille airport indicated on X (ex Twitter). “The terminal was evacuated around 10:30 a.m.,” according to a spokesperson. “It’s not a busy day,” she added.
Flights from Marrakech, Geneva and Constantine, which were due to land in Lille between 11:05 a.m. and 11:40 a.m., were diverted, it is specified on the website.
At Bron airport (a business airport near Lyon), “doubts have been lifted, traffic has resumed,” airport management said. In Nantes too, traffic has resumed. Eight flights were previously diverted and eight put on hold for departure.
The Louvre Museum was evacuated on Saturday, as well as the Palace of Versailles on Saturday and Tuesday after false alarms. The Gambetta high school in Arras where the teacher was killed was evacuated after a bomb threat on Monday.
According to communication from Nice airport, however, there “was just an alert to the suspicious package, something frequent, which required the establishment of a security perimeter. But everything fell within the order”.
For his part, a spokesperson for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) confirmed “bomb threats” and “evacuations from terminals” on Wednesday morning on four platforms – Lille, Lyon, Toulouse and Beauvais ( north of Paris) – without being able to give further details immediately.
According to the DGAC’s online dashboard, three airports experienced significant delays shortly after midday: Toulouse-Blagnac (two hours on arrival, one and a half hours on departure), Lille-Lesquin (one and a half hours on arrival and departure) and Beauvais-Tillé (nearly two hours from departure).