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THAILAND

Bomb threat: We were stuck on plane for hours, says passenger

A passenger plane carrying 300 people bound for Thailand which was evacuated at Stockholm's Arlanda airport after receiving a bomb threat did not have any hazardous objects on board, police have confirmed.

Bomb threat: We were stuck on plane for hours, says passenger
The aircraft that received a bomb threat on Thursday evening. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The aircraft, understood to be a Thai Airways plane going to hugely popular holiday destination Phuket, was meant to have taken off from Sweden's largest airport at 8.45pm on Thursday.

“Our command centre received information that this specific flight was threatened. The threat came on the phone, but not to us, that's all I can say,” police spokesperson Sven-Erik Ohlsson told the TT news agency.

At 17:00 on Friday police confirmed that no dangerous objects had been found on board after bomb technicians searched the plane.

Ulrika Sten was one of the passengers, going to Thailand with her family. She told TT that the aircraft first left the gate but then stopped and did not move, without any information given about the bomb alert.

“It was standing there for almost two hours. Once every half hour we were told that there were technical problems, and that the plane would be leaving soon,” she said.

She described seeing flashing lights from an emergency vehicle at around 11.30pm and first thought one of the passengers had fallen ill.

“Then a police officer came and said we had to leave the plane. We were only allowed to bring phones and wallets,” she said.

The passengers were only told of the bomb threat after the aircraft had been evacuated. They have now all been questioned by police about whether or not they noticed anything suspicious during boarding.

“I can understand the idea, that you don't want to create anxiety. At the same time I think it took a very long time before we got to get off the plane,” said Sten.

A large section of the international departures terminal was also evacuated for security reasons, however according to police the threat was directed specifically at the flight and not the airport.

A preliminary investigation into air sabotage and unlawful threats has been launched by police.