Armed men carried out a robbery on a plane Tuesday minutes after it touched down at the Landvetter airport serving the Swedish west coast city Gothenburg, DPA reported. The robbers used a car to smash through a perimetre gate and drive up to the plane just as the valuables were being loaded into a van operated by private security firm Securitas, police said. The robbers raced away in a stolen car, and left an aluminium case near the plane on the tarmac. The find was deemed suspicious and triggered the decision to evacuate the terminal building used for international flights while bomb technicians investigated it. Airport spokeswoman Paula Sandquist said outbound international flights were halted until 1800 GMT while domestic flights were operating with some delays. The plane, operated by Scandinavian carrier SAS, arrived from London's Heathrow airport at around 1130 GMT. Hans Lippens of the Gothenburg airport police described the heist as "extremely well-planned," while Landvetter security head Dan Larsson said the robbers likely had inside information. Citing the need for rescue services to be able to quickly enter the airport area in case of emergency, Larsson said the gate was designed so that vehicles could smash through it. Two vehicles were later found burning on access roads to the airport. Police launched a search for a third car believed to have been used in the heist, and deployed roadblocks and a helicopter. There were no reports of any person suffering injury in the robbery.
