Security upped at Geneva airport after French tip-off

Preventive security measures were under way around the airport, the police said, and they would continue for an indefinite period. 

Officers armed with machine guns were on duty around the airport, which straddles the Swiss border with France, after Geneva police acted on unspecified information from their French counterparts. Airport officials said the alert was triggered by an anonymous telephone call, without giving further details. “There was a bomb alert,” a source said. 

There was also heightened security on the French side of the border. “The investigation will determine the facts, but it’s not in our hands... The French investigators will keep us informed,” Geneva police spokesman Guillaume Gentil said. “The situation at the airport is calm.” France has been on high security alert after a series of attacks, including the murder of a Catholic priest during a church service in northern France by knife-wielding assailants on Tuesday. 

The heightened security closed most airport entrances, with armed officers checking the documents of visitors.