The airports of Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux and Montpellier They were evacuated this Thursday due to bomb threats, a day after 17 airfields had to be evacuated for the same reason, which also forced dozens of schools and the tourist Palace of Versailles to be emptied of the public.

The decision was made after the French Government decided last week to raise the anti-terrorist alert after the knife attack in a high school in the city of Arrasin which a teacher was murdered after being stabbed by a jihadist of Russian origin who claimed to act on behalf of the Islamic State.

Deployment of security forces and bomb squads

On Wednesday, 17 airfields received some type of alert and, of them, 15 were temporarily evacuated. The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, has referred to “jokes in bad taste” and recalled that this type of false threats can lead to sentences of up to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupont-Moretti, promised to “punish” the “clowns” who are causing these problems.

The airports affected this Thursday have announced warning messages on their social networks to confirm evacuations and, in some cases, such as Lille, they have openly spoken of a “bomb alert”, only to shortly afterwards proclaim in the same way “the end of the alert” and the “progressive reopening” of the facilities.

The prefecture of Herault has reported the deployment of security forces at the Montpellier airport, as far as A team of bomb squads has even been deployed “to clear up doubts”.