© Associated Press/Fernando LlanoPassengers by the Air France desk at the airport in Caracas after their flight to Paris was cancelled.
Venezuela has grounded an Air France flight after being tipped off by French authorities that a terrorist group might be planning to detonate an explosive device in midair.
The Venezuelan interior minister, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, told state TV late on Saturday that more than 60 technicians, bomb experts and a canine team would perform an exhaustive search of the aircraft before the flight could be reprogrammed. Five hours after the flight's 7.25pm scheduled departure it was still unclear what the results of that search were or when they would be announced.
The precise nature of the bomb threat was not known, but Rodríguez Torres said French authorities had passed along information from a credible source that a terrorist group was seeking to place a bomb aboard an unspecified flight between Caracas and Paris.
"We don't want to speculate on the motives because the information comes directly from French intelligence services," he said, adding that the information was still being processed.
Stranded passengers said they had cleared immigration and were preparing to board Air France flight 385 when they were told at the last minute that it was being delayed so that the Airbus A340-300 aircraft could be checked. No reason was given.
"We only learned reading Twitter that it could have been a bomb," said Jesus Arandia, a 52-year-old university professor.
About 100 angry passengers surrounded the Air France check-in counter to protest against the airline's failure to keep them informed or provide alternative travel arrangements. Around midnight, the airport announced the flight was rescheduled for Sunday afternoon.
"They never told us anything," said Marbella Covino, a 22-year-old student.
Venezuela's intelligence agency declined to comment, saying it was not authorised to discuss the case.
Security breaches have been detected before at Venezuela's main international airport.
In September, several Venezuelan soldiers stationed at the airport were arrested after French authorities made their biggest cocaine bust ever
The US has warned that Middle Eastern terror groups have tried to make inroads in Venezuela, taking advantage of political cover provided by the late President Hugo Chávez's outreach to Iran and Syria, whose governments the US considers state sponsors of terrorism.
In its most-recent assessment of terrorist threats in the western hemisphere, however, the US state department said there were no known operational cells currently in the region. Instead, the activity of groups including Hezbollah and al-Qaida appears to be limited to fundraising and money-laundering, the report said.
Source: Associated Press
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter