A 29-year-old British man, arrested at gunpoint in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on January 1 for making a ‘bomb threat’ will not face legal proceedings, the public prosecution department said on Saturday.

The man has been released from custody and has returned to Britain, the department said in a statement.

Dutch media reported on Friday the man had been arrested after saying he had a bomb, leading to the closure of part of a departures hall. Sniffer dogs failed to find any explosives on the man, in his luggage or in the surrounding area.

Commotion

According to the public prosecutor’s statement, a check-in desk worker first reported hearing that the man had said something about a bomb. ‘It would appear that in the commotion other people reported hearing this, but when questioned again, this was not the case,’ the statement said.

‘The man had a fight with his girlfriend in the departure hall … and was under the influence of both alcohol and drugs,’ the statement said.

The department said that the reaction of both the check-in desk worker and the military police was understandable and professional, given ‘the heightened state of alert at places such as airports’.