The surprise item carried by film director Mark Cousins that fell foul of new Edinburgh Airport scanner

A film director who regularly flies from Edinburgh Airport said his hand luggage was searched by security staff because a new scanner “doesn’t like books”.

Former Edinburgh International Film Festival director Mark Cousins was using one of the new machines, which do not require passengers to remove liquids and electronic equipment while bags are scanned.

However, the bag was selected to be manually searched, which he was told turned out to be because it contained two books on top of each other.

Edinburgh Airport is deploying new security scanners | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

Mr Cousins posted to his posted to his 385,600 followers on X on Thursday: “Bag searched at Edinburgh airport security.

“No toiletries or metal in it, so I ask if it's random search. ‘No, the new machine doesn't like books’."

The Edinburgh-based director and writer later told The Scotsman: “It was one of the new ‘leave everything in your bags’ machines.

“As a filmmaker, I travel a lot and go through security in Edinburgh Airport about once a week, which I have done for 30 years.

“I had two books, one on top of the other [one thin]. Both were about Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, as I'm going to Mallorca for the Spanish premiere of my film about her.

“My bag went into the reject lane of shame because of the two books.”

Historian Laura O’Brien, responding to the post, said she had had the same experience with new scanners at Newcastle Airport: “This has happened to me twice on the new machines!

“Apparently a stack of NYC travel guides is flagged as ‘suspicious’.”

However, Edinburgh Airport insisted the books had not led to Mr Cousins’s bag being searched. A spokesperson said: “All bags may be subject to search for security purposes. Books are fine to carry in hand baggage.”

The airport said there was “no issue” with books coming through and suggested the search might have been prompted by another item.

“We have never heard of this before,” the spokesperson said. “Books would not have been the cause. Bags are always subject to random checks. We have approximately 27,000 passengers going through every day at the moment.”

The airport said 25 per cent of rejected bags were searched for reasons other than for containing liquids or large electrical items.

Officials warned the Tartan Army flying to the Euros last month that wearing kilts and sporrans was ”not great” for airport security screening and football fans should be ready to take off their sporrans.