WEST BANK (MEMO) – A stampede broke out at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv when American tourists tried to take an unexploded shell through security as a ‘souvenir’, local media reports.
According to the report, passengers in the departure lounge at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv rushed for the exits after staff slammed the alarm.
When the American tourists appeared with the hefty undetonated shell piece at security, airport guards thought the family may be terrorists and launched an emergency evacuation.
Despite urging passengers to leave the terminal ‘slowly’, the alarm prompted a melee, in which hundreds sprinted in all directions.
An injured eyewitness said, “There was a lot of shouting. I just felt that I had to run for my life.”
The American family had reportedly picked up the unexploded bomb as a “souvenir” on their trip to the occupied Golan Heights, the Times of Israel reported.
In videos circulating online, chaos erupted in the departure hall, with people running and panicking. A 32-year-old man was hospitalized with injuries as he tried to flee across a moving baggage carousel, the regime’s airports authority confirmed.