Venezuela Says Air France Bomb Threat in Caracas was False Alarm

A bomb threat that forced the evacuation of an Air France jet in Caracas was a false alarm, Venezuelan authorities said Sunday.

Air France flight 385 was scheduled to take off for Paris at 2355 GMT Saturday night but was abruptly cancelled after French security services warned there might be a bomb on board.

But in a statement on its Twitter account, the Maiquetia International Airport, which serves Caracas, said the threat proved to be a false alarm, and the flight had been rescheduled for Sunday.

Justice Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres had earlier explained French intelligence services told their Venezuelan counterparts that "a terror group would seek to place a bomb, to blow it up on a flight between France and Venezuela."

In Paris, a spokesman for the French Interior Ministry confirmed that the Venezuelans were alerted after "the French security services received reports of a threat to the Caracas-Paris flight."

Rodriguez Torres had said the plane would be searched "inch by inch. And then the flight will be rescheduled."