American family triggers panic at Tel Aviv airport with unexploded shell

Officials say the family were planning to take the rusted piece of metal home with them

Authorities at Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, east of Tel Aviv, cleared the departure hall when an American family turned up with part of an unexploded shell. AFP

An American family set off a bomb scare at Israel's main airport on Thursday when they showed security inspectors part of unexploded shell that they found while visiting the Golan Heights.

Video on social media showed panicked passengers scattering in the departure hall at Ben Gurion Airport after officials sounded an evacuation alert.

One man was injured as he tried to get over a baggage carousel and was taken to hospital for treatment, the Israel Airports Authority said.

"There was a lot of shouting. I just felt that I had to run for my life,” he told the Israeli news agency Ynet.

The family had apparently planned to take the unexploded shell home with them as a souvenir, officials said. The airports authority released a photo of the rusted ordnance wrapped in a plastic bag.

“When they arrived to check their luggage, they showed the piece of the shell to security,” the airports authority said. “Since it was a piece of a shell, the evacuation of the area was announced.”

The family was allowed to board their flight after being questioned by security staff, who declared an all-clear.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it. The area bordering Lebanon and Syria is scattered with unexploded munitions from that conflict and another war in 1973.