Angry ex behind hoax bomb call
2010-09-27 14:02
Stockholm - An angry ex-girlfriend called in the hoax bomb alert to Canadian police at the weekend that forced a Pakistan-bound plane to make an emergency landing in Stockholm, a Swedish newspaper reported on Monday.
A 28-year-old Canadian man was briefly arrested in connection with the allegations but then released without charge after no explosives were found aboard the plane, flying from Toronto to Karachi.
The cleared suspect was going to Pakistan to get married and his ex-girlfriend had called Canadian police warning he was carrying explosives because she was unhappy with their separation, tabloid Aftonbladet wrote.
"From what I understood, an ex came forward with the claim in connection with their separation. It was surely not a happy one," Stockholm police officer Haakan Westing, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, told Aftonbladet.
"She had an evil eye on him," he said, adding that according to the cleared suspect's written statement he was going to get married in Pakistan.
Unable to leave Sweden
Stockholm police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren told AFP on Monday that the man was travelling to Pakistan "for personal reasons", but could not confirm he was going to get married or that the angry woman had tipped off Canadian authorities.
"It's a theory," was all he would say.
Lindgren said the man, who was detained but then released without charge after his plane had already left for Pakistan, was expected to leave Sweden on Monday.
Media had reported earlier on Monday that the man was blocked from leaving Sweden because no airlines would take him onboard.
"That's not true," Lindgren said. "I think it's a misunderstanding. There was no place, is the information I got. It just didn't work out with the flights."
Lindgren said there were no direct flights from Sweden to Pakistan but that Swedish authorities would continue to help the man as quickly as possible.
Canadian police have said they are looking into whether the bomb alert they received was a "terrorist hoax".
