A Lufthansa airliner bound for Tehran had to be grounded Tuesday for hours at Frankfurt's Rhein-Main Airport after German security sources received bomb threat alerts.

The spokesman for the Federal Police at Frankfurt's airport, Klaus Ludwig, announced on Thursday that the flight "was halted only moments before its scheduled take-off for Tehran at 6:00 p.m. local time after the Lufthansa call-center in Dublin, South Ireland, received an alert."

After passengers were evacuated from the plane and their luggage and cargo were unloaded, explosive experts boarded the aircraft, he added. But he claimed they had not found anything.

The plane resumed its flight to Tehran at 2.37 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Ludwig.

Lufthansa spokesman, Thomas Jachnow, also confirmed the incident, saying "Following a security alert, Lufthansa flight 600 was diverted from the main runway shortly before take-off and was evacuated. "

It, however, has emerged that explosive experts of the Federal Police found and defused two time-delay bombs - one inside the airplane door and another planted in one of the engine compartments.

German security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Iran's Mehr News Agency (MNA) that the Federal Police had arrested three Arab suspects, one man and two women, in this regard.

In the preliminary investigations, they revealed part of their plan which included detonating the bombs over the Iranian territories so that the incident could be later used as a propaganda and psychological warfare against Iran.

German security authorities have not issued any official announcements so far about the incident.

Analysts, however, say that, given the latest joint efforts by Iran and Saudi Arabia, the recent Islamabad summit on the future of the region, the upcoming Baghdad security summit as well as the 20 March Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, such terrorist operations may have been devised to undermine joint Arab-Iranian efforts and to make division among the Middle Eastern countries.

The sources have also told MNA that a number of Frankfurt Airport staff have been arrested in connection with the terrorist operation.

Security experts believe the operation could not be carried out without cooperation of the airport staff and the flight crew.


AMM/DB