Britain’s Gatwick Airport reopens after evacuation
LONDON (AFP) — Britain’s Gatwick Airport said on Saturday it had reopened the north terminal, following an evacuation due to a suspicious item found at the airport earlier in the day.
The terminal at Britain’s second busiest airport was found to be safe after a search by police. A man had been arrested after behaving suspiciously, police said, and bomb disposal experts were called to investigate the item.
“We are investigating the circumstances of the incident and it is too early to say what the item may be,” said Sussex Police Detective Superintendent Nick May.
“However, given the events in Paris ... there is heightened awareness around any such incident and it is best that we treat the matter in all serious- ness.”
Gatwick is one of Britain’s busiest airports, handling 39 million passengers traveling to 200 destinations every year.
Britain’s terror threat remains at its second highest “severe” level, Prime Minister David Cameron said after a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee.
“The threat is already at ‘severe’ which means an attack is highly likely and will remain so,” he said in a televised address on Saturday.
The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a coordinated assault by gunmen and bombers that killed 127 people at locations across Paris on Friday night.
“We must recognize that however strong we are, however much we prepare, we in the UK face the same threat,” Cameron said.
Britain’s “severe” threat level has been in place since August 2014. The country’s last major attack was in 2005 when four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings which killed 52 people.
In London, the annual Lord Mayor’s Show, an ancient carnival which has been running for 800 years, pushed through as planned. It was preceded by a two-minute silence and with Union flags flying at half-mast, said a spokesman for the show.
Tower Bridge was also lit in the blue, white and red of France’s Tricolor flag.