Man on run at Munich airport after 'explosive traces' found on laptop

A man was on the run at Munich airport tonight after traces of "explosive" were reportedly to have been found on the laptop computer he was carrying as hand luggage. Initial police reports said the man fled after security controllers asked to re-examine his laptop when they suspected it contained explosive substances. Initial reports said the laptop had been seized, but police later said the man had fled with it in his possession. Terminal two of Munich airport was cleared of staff and passengers, who were checked before being allowed to leave. Passengers were forced to disembark from planes waiting on the runway and 60 flights were either delayed or cancelled. Around 200 police officers were sent into the secured area to search for the man. Later, a police spokesman said it could not be ruled out that the security alarm may have been triggered by a man who was late for his plane and whose luggage contained other chemical substances, such as perfumes, which could have resembled explosives. "It does not necessarily mean that he was carrying explosives," Albert Poerschke, a police spokesman, said. "He might have been in a hurry to catch his plane, which is why he ran away. If he was rushing, he might not have registered what was happening." Police were still looking for the man three and a half hours after he had fled. The incident began at 3.40pm when the man was going through the Schengen security area, where passports are not required to be shown. He was apparently carrying only hand luggage. Munich airport is Germany's second busiest, with around 25 million passengers departing from it every year. Airports across the world have been on heightened alert since Christmas Day, when a man tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.