PARIS—A retired French police officer traveling on Air France was detained after a fake bomb hidden in a lavatory forced his Paris-bound flight to make an emergency landing in Kenya, according to prosecutors.
The hoax — the fourth against Air France in recent weeks — comes amid heightened concerns about extremist violence in many countries, and aggravated passenger jitters around the holidays.
The man in custody is a former police officer detained upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Monday, according to an official in the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny. The official, who is not authorized to be publicly identified speaking about an ongoing investigation, did not release the suspect’s name or information about what he is suspected of.
It’s not clear whether the suspect had also been questioned in Kenya. A Kenyan police official said six passengers were questioned Sunday, including the person who informed the crew about the device.
The arrest is part of an investigation prompted by a lawsuit filed by Air France on Monday for reckless endangerment. The lawsuit does not name a perpetrator but leaves it to investigators to determine who might eventually be sent to trial.
France has been on high alert for terrorist activity and in a state of emergency since Islamic extremist attacks Nov. 13 in Paris killed 130 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for those attacks and for downing a plane carrying Russian tourists out of Egypt in October.
