Woman takes old bomb on jet

A British woman sparked the evacuation of an entire airport when she tried to board a plane - with a bomb in her hand luggage.

Security guards spotted the live Second World War shell on the scanners as she boarded a Ryanair flight at Bergerac, in the Dordogne.

Bomb squad officers destroyed the shell in a controlled explosion, while 1,000 passengers and staff were evacuated from the terminal. The woman, 55, said she had bought the 37mm explosive in a secondhand shop as a present for her husband, who collected military memorabilia.

A French policeman said: "She told us she had no idea that taking a military shell through airport security would cause such a fuss." The woman, from Nottingham, was freed without charge, and boarded the delayed jet 90 minutes later to East Midlands airport.