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TERRORISM

Stowaway sparks terror fears on Norwegian flight

A stowaway on a Norwegian flight from Barcelona to London was removed by armed police on Sunday, sparking fears of a terror attack.

Stowaway sparks terror fears on Norwegian flight
A view of a Norwegian Airlines plane from Oslo's Gardermoen airport. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB scanpix

The woman who is in her 40s and presumed to be from an Eastern European country, managed to sneak past security and board the flight bound for London, Gatwick.

According to Norwegian, the crew alerted Spanish police when they found an extra person on-board during a routine head count. However, Britain's The Sun newspaper reports that a passenger alerted the crew after seeing the woman flaunt several passports. 

“We will not speculate on what happened before our crew discovered the woman inside the plane, but our routine procedure exposed that there was a person with no documentation on board,”  Tonje Naess of Norwegian told Norway's Nettavisen news site.

The plane was evacuated immediately as armed police entered the plane to take the woman off.

“It was terrifying. We didn’t know if she was a terrorist. Police with guns arrived and there was a rush to get off. A mum and baby got squashed,” pregnant passenger Julia Hilton told the Sun.

The plane's passengers re-boarded after 90 minutes, causing a two-hour delay.

“We take such incidents seriously and although it happens very rarely our crew is well trained to deal with situations like this. They acted professionally, acted in accordance with procedures and police were called,” Naess told Nettavisen.

TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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