At the dawn of the All Saints’ Day holidays, fourteen regional airports were targeted this Friday, October 20 in the morning by bomb threats, and three evacuated, according to consistent sources, causing a third consecutive day of disruptions in French air transport .
According to airport sources, 14 regional platforms are affected, two of which were evacuated, Bordeaux and Béziers. In addition to these two airports, Lille, Beauvais, Tarbes, Nantes, Brest, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Lyon-Bron, Pau, Nice, Biarritz and Rennes received threatening messages.
This last airport was also the subject of an evacuation “as a precautionary measure”, then indicated the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine: “in order to remove doubt, the police and a dog technical team are on site. In Bordeaux, “today at 12 p.m. a new bomb alert once again forced us to evacuate the airport,” the installation confirmed on its website.
For her part, a spokesperson for Lille airport confirmed to AFP the receipt of a threatening email. “We cleared the doubt with the police services” and “there was no evacuation,” she stressed. On the other hand, Beauvais airport refused to confirm any alert. “We are operating normally, there has been no evacuation,” an official told AFP. Nantes airport confirmed for its part that it had been the subject of a “threat of bomb threat” on Friday morning, like other airports and like Wednesday and Thursday. An inspection is underway but the airport has not been evacuated. Toulouse airport also confirmed having been the target of threats. “After analysis, state services have kept Toulouse airport open and have taken measures to guarantee the safety of passengers,” the press service said. Finally, Carcassonne airport said it had received “a threatening email” and had carried out “a careful inspection of the airport” with the police, without evacuation.
Up to two years in prison for a false alarm
This is the third day in a row that such alerts have disrupted the operation of airports, while the All Saints’ Day holidays, synonymous with increased attendance, begin Friday evening throughout France.
According to the operations dashboard on the DGAC website, the disruptions were less serious on Friday than the day before, when some airports suffered flight delays of up to three hours.
Thursday evening, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin mentioned 18 arrests in 48 hours in connection with these alerts, which also affect educational establishments or tourist places. This Friday, the Palace of Versailles was once again targeted by a bomb threat and evacuated around 12:45 p.m. for the fifth time in less than a week.
These alerts have been increasing for several days in France, particularly since the jihadist attack which cost the life of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras. The government warned on Wednesday that each threat would be the subject of a complaint, with Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti denouncing “the little puppets who have fun with these threats, which are false in this case”. The criminal sanction can be up to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros.