Elderly woman innocently writes ‘BOMB’ instead of Bombay, leads to a bomb scare at Brisbane airport

After things got little intense, the cop asked the owner of the bag to open it and asked what the 'BOMB' written on the tag meant. To which she innocently replied, 'It's for Bombay!'" After some interrogation and checking through the contents, she was let go by the police.

Many travellers were shocked how the bag with Bomb written on it passed security checks. (Source: Siobhan Heanue/ Twitter)

An innocent mistake by an Indian woman led to a bomb scare in Australia. Venkata Lakshmi, 65, was travelling from Mumbai to Brisbane on Wednesday (April 4), however, a small mistake on her luggage tag led to a serious interrogation by the Australian Federal Police. As it happened, the paper stuck to her bag read “‘Bomb’ to Brisbane”, leaving fellow passengers in a frenzy at the baggage claim counter in the morning.

As passengers went to collect their luggage, one female passenger spotted the suspicious item next to her suitcase. “It was with a whole bunch of bags and I just saw the word ‘bomb’,” the woman told Yahoo7 News on condition of anonymity. “I didn’t know what to make of it, to be honest, I thought it may have been a joke,” the passenger said adding that when she saw cobs approaching the bag, she understood it was something serious.

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Australian Federal Police cordoned off the area after they were alerted to the suspicious bag. “An area near a baggage carousel was cordoned off and the item was examined in accordance with routine protocols and was not deemed to be suspicious,” a police spokesperson confirmed the news agency.

So, this caused a bit of an issue at #Brisbane airport. Police cordoned off part of the terminal after this bag popped out on the luggage belt. The passenger was coming from Mumbai, formerly Bombay.

Airport code: BOM. #CommonwealthGames2018 pic.twitter.com/p7qgTFLMsX

— Siobhan Heanue (@siobhanheanue) April 5, 2018

After things got little intense, the cop asked the owner of the bag to open it and asked what the ‘BOMB’ written on the tag meant. To which she innocently replied, ‘It’s for Bombay!'”

Her daughter, Devi Jothiraj, from Yeppoon, revealed her mother has limited English knowledge and was anxious about flying alone from Mumbai for her birthday celebrations. As many still refer to Mumbai by its earlier name Bombay, “she wanted to write the airport she departed from and her destination on her bag,” her daughter added. However, when she started writing it on the tag, she realised there was not enough space and tried to go with a short-form, only to lead to a great confusion.

After inspecting the contents of her bag, the cops quickly realised there was no threat and let her go. “Its understandable with the extra security for the Commonwealth Games. Because she is elderly they probably believed her,” the daughter said.