Caution for man who claimed to have bomb.

A DRUNKEN man who produced an alarm clock at a North East airport check-in desk and claimed it to be a "bomb" was branded "unbelievably irresponsible" last night.

He made the claim at Durham Tees Valley Airport near Darlington on Monday afternoon, while passengers were checking in to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam. The man, 45, was one of three Latvian men checking in and staff were initially concerned as they appeared to be drunk.

While going through the check-in process, one of the men produced an alarm clock from his bag and shouted three times that it was "a bomb".

Airport security staff immediately moved in to detain the men, who were then arrested by uniformed police from Darlington. The trio - aged 26, 45 and 54 - were interviewed at Darlington police station where it was established the incident had been nothing more then a drunken joke.

The 45-year-old who had made the bomb claim was given a formal caution and his fellow travellers were released with no further action.

Inspector John Zissler of Durham police said: "Fortunately, there were no delays caused to flights and, in the circumstances, a caution was the most appropriate method of dealing with the incident.

"But this should act as a reminder to airport passengers that any perceived security threat will be taken very seriously.

"It was an unbelievably irresponsible action."