Undercover Agents Smuggle Gun through Vienna Airport in Security Test
Source Agence France-Presse English Wire via NewsEdge Corporation
VIENNA -- Two interior ministry undercover agents managed to smuggle a gun and pepper spray through X-ray machines and metal detectors at Vienna's international airport, Der Standard newspaper reported on Friday.
The knives of the agents, a man and a woman, were however detected and confiscated by airport security personnel, the newspaper wrote.
The operation, which took place on July 12, was part of routine security checks at airports, carried out according to European Union directives.
The male agent hid the gun around his waist. The woman had the pepper spray in her handbag.
An airport spokesman confirmed the facts of the incident but said Vienna's Schwechat airport was safe.
"There is simply no such thing as 100 percent security," airport spokesman Hans Mayer was quoted as saying in Der Standard.
But national police chief Herwig Haidinger on Friday told APA news agency that security measures would be taken at Schwechat and other airports across Austria after the incident.
Up to 30,000 passengers pass through Vienna's international airport daily.
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