Berlin Brandenburg Airport Terminal 1 Evacuated After Woman Reports Dangerous Substance

Germany's federal police, responsible for transportation security, evacuated Terminal 1 of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) on Thursday evening.

Preliminary reports suggested a luggage security scare. It was not immediately clear whether or not it posed a real threat.

A police spokesperson said that a woman had told security staff at a service point that she had a dangerous substance.

"A potential threat from the unidentified substance could not be ruled out," the spokesperson told Germany's DPA news agency.

A hazardous item alert was then issued. The spokesperson declined to comment further at the early stage.

What did the airport say about departures and arrivals?

The airport itself also confirmed the incident slightly later on Thursday.

"Because of the suspicion of a dangerous substance, the federal police issued a dangerous item alert at around 5:45 p.m.," an airport spokesperson said, leading to the "public area of Terminal 1 being cleared."

They said planes that were already prepared to depart could take off as normal and incoming arrivals could also continue to land.

Passenger processing was being "relocated to Terminal 2 to the extent that it's possible," the spokesperson said.

"The degree to which this could lead to delays or cancellations is not yet foreseeable."

Many but not all flights departing Terminal 1 from around 7 p.m. local time were marked as delayed on the airport's website. An airport press officer told DW that around 30 flights had been delayed but that they were trying to avoid cancellations by redirecting departures to Terminal 2.

Trains were also impacted by the operation for a time. The city's S-Bahn train service confirmed disruptions on both lines to airport, while Deutsche Bahn also reported widespread disruptions to regional trains.

BER or the "Willy Brandt Airport" in Schönefeld is Berlin's busiest and Germany's third-busiest airport since it opened in 2020. It also serves as the primary airport for many federal government flights. Some 26 million passengers travel through it each year.

The last comparable security disruption at the airport was in March of this year, when flights were disrupted but because of a potentially suspicious aerial object rather than a suspicious item in the terminal.

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Edited by: Zac Crellin