Berlin:
A Russian Aeroflot plane was evacuated at a Berlin airport Monday after authorities received a bomb threat only minutes before the plane's scheduled departure.
Police searched the plane, luggage and passengers destined for Moscow but found no explosive substances, a spokesman said. They gave the all-clear in the early afternoon.
Several news outlets received letters early Monday warning of a planned attack on the SU 112 flight to Moscow, due to depart from Berlin Schoenefeld airport at 9.50 a.m. (0850 GMT).
A copy of the fax received by DPA said the alleged perpetrators sought to "remind of the bloody and costly fight by the upstanding Chechen people and their leader".
The letter was signed by the "Commando Abu al-Walid al Ramedi".
The plane was evacuated and parked in a secure location, at a distance from the runways and the terminal building. The airport, on Berlin's south-eastern outskirts, remained open.
Among the passengers evacuated was a group of Vietnamese being deported from Germany, via Moscow. Protests against the planned deportation of the Vietnamese have recently taken place in Berlin