Forcible opening of airport gate causes concern

Kochi, Jul 7 (UNI) The Shareholders Organisation of the Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL), which operates the Nedumbassery International Airport near here, has expressed concern over the forcible opening of one of the gates on the airport periphery yesterday.

Urging the airport authorities to carry out a thorough probe to rule out any terrorist angle, the organisation said in a statement that such incidents could lead to a security breach at the airport.

A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) patrol squad had yesterday found gate number six, located almost six km away from the airport terminal building, broken open.

A thorough search was carried out of the area with police dog and bomb disposal squads. However, only some empty liquor bottles and plastic glasses were reportedly recovered from the area, leading officials to suspect that this was the handiwork of some anti-social elements.

''We have taken the incident seriously and are going to step up the patrolling of the airport periphery,'' Airport Director A C K Nair said.

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