On Sunday, German officials evacuated hundreds of travelers from one of the largest airports in the country after reports of eye irritation and breathing difficulties began circulating. People gathered in the security and luggage-check area of the Hamburg Airport reported symptoms consistent with pepper spray irritation, causing authorities to shut down the airport temporarily.
According to The Washington Post, 68 people were injured. None of the injuries were life threatening.
Based on initial assessments, police don’t believe that the incident was related to terrorism.
There was “no evidence” that the airport was struck by a terror attack, said Hamburg police spokesman Rene Schönhardt, adding that a cartridge of pepper left inside a trash bin near the security check was likely the cause of the incident.
“Nothing else has been found,” he emphasized. “The fire department didn’t detect any dangerous substances.”
Hamburg fire department spokesman Werner Nölken echoed what the police said, reassuring the public that no terrorist links have been identified.
“We are not assuming a terrorist attack,” the spokesman affirmed. “Some clown, for whatever reason” may have dumped pepper spray into an air-conditioning vent in the airport, allowing the the irritant to permeate through the air and injure travelers.
“The cartridge found in the bin was only the size of a lipstick…so it wouldn’t have been possible to injure so many people without the air-conditioning system diffusing the gas,” the Post reported, citing Nölken.
Germany has been in a state panic since last spring when a slew of Muslim refugees conducted terror attacks throughout the country. From Berlin to Munich, Islamic radicals, using knives, machetes, and motor vehicles, have killed German citizens with unprecedented brutality. The most horrific attack occurred on Dec. 19, 2016 when a terrorist rammed his truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12.
While Sunday’s incident wasn’t a terror attack, the ease at which an unknown person was unable to release an irritant gas into an air-conditioning vent and injure nearly 70 people should alarm authorities considerably. At the very least, German airports should reassess security protocol.