Armed man sparks Beijing airport alert

A Hong Kong man sparked a security alert at Beijing airport when officers found a mortar shell, a hand grenade and machine gun ammunition in his hand luggage.

But the 40-year-old man was released following the incident on Sunday night when it was found the weapons contained no explosives, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.

All the weapons were confiscated.

The man had checked in for his flight and his luggage was being X-rayed just before 8pm when security staff spotted the weapons on their screen. They opened the luggage and found the weapons wrapped in newspaper.

Under questioning, the passenger said he had bought the items at a tourist spot and wanted to bring them to Hong Kong to add to his military collection.

He said the weapons had been disabled.