Man detained at Kansas City airport with suspicious items

Sunday, September 11, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Security agents detained a man and shut down one of three terminals at the main airport in Kansas City after detecting suspicious items inside his carry-on bag on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The man was stopped about 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the Southwest Airlines checkpoint at Kansas City International Airport. Transportation security agents who detected suspicious items in his bag asked to examine them, and he was detained when he refused, airline and law enforcement officials said.

A bomb squad was called, the area around the checkpoint evacuated and the terminal shutdown, they said.

One of the suspicious items has been cleared by explosives experts at the airport and another was being investigated, according to a homeland security official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The FBI is investigating.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said a suspicious package was X-rayed and no explosive material was found. She declined to say what was in the bag, but said the package was "disrupted in such a way to preserve" evidence by the bomb squad. The man is the custody of airport security, she said.