'Suspect bomb' found on German Flight
Planes of German airline Air Berlin stand at Munich's airport apron November 18, 2010. Namibian police found a suspect package in Windhoek airport during the loading of a German tourist flight to Munich, German police and Air Berlin said on Thursday. The Windhoek airport operators said police disembarked the 296 passengers and 10 crew and unloaded the luggage and cargo for security checks after they discovered a suspicious parcel at the luggage screening point. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

A suspect package believed to be containing components of a bomb was reportedly found at the Namibian Capital of Windhoek on Thursday. A suitcase checked on to a plane en-route to Munich Germany was intercepted during the loading of an Air Berlin flight. Initial reports from the Germany's Federal Crime Office suggest that the X-ray device revealed batteries that were attached with wires to a detonator and a ticking clock.

Only the ongoing forensic investigation will show whether this was a live explosive, it said in a statement.

After a six-hour delay, the flight along with all 296 passengers and 10 crew was later dispatched to Munich. The Namibia Airports Company stated that the suspect package was detected at the luggage screening point prior to loading. But, officials are yet to determine if it was planned insurgent attack.

The incident also comes just a day after Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere claiming concrete indications of terrorist attacks being planned in the country this month. Security has been steeped at all strategic points.

Since the middle of 2010, the security services have noticed increased indications that the terrorist organization al-Qaeda has been planning attacks in the United States, in Europe and in Germany, the minister, said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month Saudi Arabia's intelligence apparatus alerted the officials in UK and Dubai about two packages containing explosive material. The packages were being shipped by air from Yemen to the United States. Security officials intercepted a package at the East Midlands airport, in Nottingham, on a flight en route from Cologne to Chicago.

One of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane and the other bomb was discovered in a parcel at a FedEx facility in Dubai. The bomb found in East Midlands Airport was concealed in a Hewlett Packard printer and contained 400 grams of the highly potent explosive pentaerythritol trinitrate (PETN). The package found in Dubai was holding 300 grams of PETN explosive material.

Al-Qaeda Fedex Namibia United kingdom