Federal police in Germany launched a major operation at Frankfurt Airport today, leading to parts of the airport being evacuated after a French family of four got passed a security check after testing positive for explosives. A police spokesperson said one of them had not fully completed security checks and blamed an error by a security officer.
During the incident, the police stopped boarding and evacuated the security areas A and Z in terminal one, leading to many flight cancellations and disruptions, around 7000 Lufthansa passengers have been affected. The airline has said it has reserved 2000 hotel rooms for this evening as a precaution.
The French family at the centre of the alert were found and questioned by police, they were later allowed to continue on with their travel plans. It is unclear at this stage what exactly triggered the positive test for explosives.
The evacuation of parts of the terminal lasted for approximately two and a half hours, being lifted at around 2.30pm local time. Lufthansa reported a number of cancellations and warn the disruption could last into the evening. They also advised that some flights had to leave Frankfurt without transporting passengers in order to reposition aircraft and crews at departure airports outside of Frankfurt as quickly as possible to stabilize the flight schedule. So far around 7,000 Lufthansa passengers are currently affected by the flight cancellations.
Lufthansa asks its passengers to check on the status of their flights before leaving for the airport and those that have been affected by today's action may change reservations once for free. 
