Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Two flights from the international airport in the Georgian capital Tbilisi were postponed after a false call about a bomb threat was received on Sept. 12, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

The staff and passengers were evacuated from the airport building and the flights en route to China and Kazakhstan were postponed for several hours following the warning. The planes took off with delays.

Sappers searched for the alleged bomb for two hours. Later, law enforcement officers established that the warning was a hoax as no explosives were found in the building.

Earlier, three calls about bombs allegedly placed in the buildings of Rustavi-2 and Imedi, which are leading broadcasters in Georgia, were received by the "112" service.

During an inspection of the buildings explosives were not found. Georgia's Interior Ministry reported about the detention of those who made the first two anonymous calls. Both of them are underage.

The person who reported the alleged bomb at the airport has not yet been identified.

Earlier, an evacuation was declared in the parliament of Georgia due to an anonymous call about an explosive device allegedly planted in the building.

Georgia's Interior Ministry has launched a new legislative initiative that would hold accountable the parents of the underage persons who make false bomb threats.

The Interior Ministry said recently anonymous calls about bomb threats in various facilities in Georgia have become frequent, which upsets the population and inflicts considerable financial damage both to the government and private organizations.

The ministry is determined to toughten relevant laws. The ministry has developed a project, which is to be initiated jointly with parliament members in the legislature in the near future. Changes will be made to an article of the Criminal Code which envisions responsibility for false reports regarding terrorism, and the punishment will be toughened. Also, changes will be made to the Administrative Code and, accordingly, parents of a person who made a false call will pay a hefty fine.