"Anti-static shoes kick off Rome airport evacuation"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Shoes trigger Rome airport alert
 
 
ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- A passenger wearing anti-static shoes triggered
a security alert at Rome's main airport Wednesday, forcing the partial
evacuation of a terminal housing Israeli airline El Al and major U.S.
carriers.

Airport officials said staff at El Al's check-in desk hit the alert
button after a man passed through their metal detectors wearing shoes
that had copper wires embedded in them to ward against static.

Some bystanders were herded through security gates to get away from the
suspect passenger, while scores of other people were ordered out of
Terminal C at Fiumicino Airport.

"All the alarms sounded as the security doors were opened to allow
people to pass through. There was a panic. Two girls from Alitalia
couldn't stop crying," cleaning lady Maria Grazi Zumbardi told Reuters
Television at the airport.

U.S. passenger Alex Kurac, who had been waiting to check in for a flight
to the United States close to the El Al desk, said airport staff forced
him to leave the terminal for about half an hour.

An airport source said the man who set off the alarm was eventually
allowed to board the Tel Aviv-bound flight after security staff had
checked his unusual footwear.

A pair of anti-static shoes set off a similar alarm at Rome airport a
year ago.

A U.S. court sentenced British national Richard Reid to life in prison
last year after he admitted to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic
airliner using explosives hidden in his shoes.

Wednesday's scare comes as Italy steps up security following a stream of
threats from Muslim militants.

A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda has warned that it will
strike at Rome unless Italy withdraws its troops from Iraq by August 15
-- a demand rejected by the Italian government.


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