A passenger, reportedly an off-duty US national guardsman, was arrested early today after a firecracker he was carrying sparked a bomb alert at Los Angeles International Airport, officials said.
"The airport's Terminal 6 was evacuated when a passenger was thought to be carrying an explosive device," a FBI spokeswoman said.
"It turned out to be a small firecracker and the terminal has now been reopened," she said.
A Los Angeles International Airport spokeswoman said the screening area of the terminal had been evacuated for about one hour but flights had not been disrupted.
"The person involved has been detained for further investigation, but the device that he tried to take through a security conveyer belt appears to have been a bird dispersal noisemaker, which is like a small firecracker," she said.
Local news reports said the man was an off-duty national guardsman, but officials declined to confirm the claim.
The alert and ensuing evacuation was the second at the busy US airport in five days.
On Wednesday, thousands of passengers were briefly evacuated from the Tom Bradley International terminal after an airport noise detection device was spotted in a planter by a traveller.
A rash of airport security alerts have hit the United States in recent months after security was radically boosted following the September 11th terror attacks on US targets.
The United States had issued a national alert for a terrorist plot to attack either unspecified sites in the United States or US interests in Yemen.
AFP