Airports to launch blitz on weapons

AIR passengers carrying knives and offensive weapons in their luggage are to be targeted in a new UK Border Agency campaign.

The agency is to launch the scheme at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick, Aberdeen and Inverness airports. It will work with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on the drive.

Last year, 387 offensive weapons, including 34 firearms and 111 bladed weapons, were seized from people travelling through Scotland's airports.

UKBA senior officer Colin Fraser said a child as young as 12 had been caught trying to bring back a weapon to Scotland.

He said the types of people who had been detected in the past had no "stereotype".

Mr Fraser said: "We had a mother coming through who told us she'd bought a knife for her son because she didn't know what else to get him."