A foreign journalist was arrested on Friday following bomb scares at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and the city’s airport, police said.
Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo could not immediately reveal the nationality of the journalist but said the bomb scare at the venue of the World Cup final draw was made shortly before 1pm.
”There was a threat made and we resorted to our standard operational procedures by evacuating that specific area and sweeping it. Concurrently we conducted the investigation and arrested a foreign journalist.
”His nationality will be revealed in a short while … we are busy having talks with the embassy,” he said.
The threat caused security officials and police to evacuate the media entrance to the venue but ”an item that was said to have been an explosive was not”.
The threat at the convention centre followed another one at the Cape Town International Airport earlier in the day.
”Within minutes we identified and arrested an individual who made two hoax calls and this is an indication of the capacity we have to immediately identify these mischief makers and bring them to book.
”Every time a call like this is made we have to treat it as a real time or live situation and deal with it accordingly,” he said. — Sapa