Albania deploys army to guard capital’s Chinese-operated international airport after Hollywood-style heist on runway
- Armed men broke onto the runway of the Albanian capital’s airport and stole millions of euros destined for a bank in Vienna on an Austrian Airlines flight
- Government officials and Hong Kong-based China Everbright Limited, which runs the airport, spar over who was responsible for security
Albania’s government has ordered troops to guard the country’s international airport and criticised the Chinese company that runs the facility, after armed robbers seized bags of cash that were about to be loaded onto a plane.
The government would “no longer allow the security of citizens and the country’s image to suffer”, Defence Minister Olta Xhacka said of Tuesday’s robbery, which was the second time in three years Mother Teresa Tirana International Airport has been targeted in a heist.
She joined Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj in accusing the airport, run by Hong Kong-based China Everbright Limited (CEL), of “persistent irresponsibility”.
“I have ordered members of the military police and the troops of the special army unit to be stationed along the security fence of the ‘Mother Teresa’ airport,” Xhacka said.
CEL rejected Lleshaj’s allegations of negligence, including that it had failed to notify the police of the break-in.
Thieves steal US$5 million in cash from Lufthansa cargo plane on tarmac in Brazil
The company said it had stepped up security measures since a similar robbery at the airport in June 2016.