Airport in Russia`s St Petersburg evacuated after bomb threat

St Petersburg: The Pulkovo airport in Russia`s St Petersburg has been evacuated because of a bomb threat, police said today.

Anna Fedoseyeva, spokeswoman for the airport in Russia`s second-largest, city said the evacuation of passengers and staff began at 3 pm local time. She said the airport was still receiving incoming flights but passengers were not allowed to disembark. Transit police of the north-west region said the airport received an anonymous telephone bomb threat at 1.30 pm and that a bomb squad was searching the terminal. Bomb threats are common in Russia, mostly the work of teenage pranksters, but evacuations of airports or railway stations are rare. The Pulkovo airport, about 20 kms south of St Petersburg, handled nearly 13 million passengers last year.