Grenade-shaped lighter forces evacuation of 1,000 people from Polish airport

Grenade-shaped lighter forces airport evacuation

WARSAW, Poland — A grenade-shaped cigarette lighter in a boy’s checked luggage has forced the evacuation of some 1,000 people from an airport in Poland and delayed four international flights.

A spokesman for the airport in Katowice, Cezary Orzech, said passengers and workers were evacuated Wednesday from the airport after a grenade shape was detected in a suitcase destined for Dortmund, Germany.

Some 80 firefighters and antiterrorists were involved in the evacuation and in checking the object, which a 13-year-old German boy bought as a souvenir during a school trip to Poland.

The lighter was confiscated because objects that appear like weapons are banned from airplanes.

Flights to Dortmund; London; Liverpool, U.K.; and Oslo, Norway were delayed.