Emailed “threats of attack” combined with abandoned luggage alerts prompted evacuations at six French airports on Wednesday — in Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Beauvais, near Paris — leading to hours of delays.
The situation was repeated at all airports until the early afternoon.
Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said the “little pranksters” of false alarms will be caught and punished.
“They will be found, they will be punished and they will be required to repay the harm they caused” if they are minors, he said.
The Palace of Versailles, a major tourist attraction on the outskirts of Paris, has been evacuated for the third time since Saturday to allow bomb disposal teams access to the site.
France is on high alert after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Friday’s killing of an instructor at a school in the northern city of Arras by a guy who claimed to be loyal to the Islamic State group.
The school was evacuated on Monday due to a bomb risk while a minute’s silence was observed in tribute to the slain teacher, while the Louvre museum was also evacuated on Saturday due to a bomb alert.
(FRANCE, 24 with AFP)