Germany's Hamburg Airport Halts Flights After Plane With 198 Passengers Receives Threat

Federal police received a threat by email on Monday morning of an attack on the Tehran-Hamburg flight with 198 passengers and 16 crew members.

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Flights to and from Hamburg Airport were suspended for about 1 1/2 hours on Monday after authorities received a threat to a plane from Iran, officials said. Takeoffs and landings at the airport in northern Germany were stopped at 12:40 pm (1040 GMT) and some arriving flights were diverted to Hannover among other places, German news agency dpa reported. Operations resumed later, though the airport warned on its website that delays were still possible.

Federal police said they received an emailed threat on Monday morning of an attack on the Tehran-Hamburg flight and were taking it seriously, though they didn't give details.

The Iran Air plane landed in Hamburg at about 12:20 pm. The 198 passengers and 16 crew members underwent a security check, and the aircraft and luggage on board were searched.

There was no immediate update on the outcome of those checks. The German air force said its planes were scrambled to accompany the aircraft from where it entered German airspace, east of Berlin, to Hamburg.