'This is wild': Young traveller who sparked bomb scare at Avalon Airport breaks his silence

By MATT JONES, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 22:59, 21 May 2026 | Updated: 23:16, 21 May 2026 A young traveller said he was treated like a 'terrorist' after two innocuous items in his luggage sparked a lockdown at one of Australia's busiest airports.  The man was travelling from Melbourne's Avalon Airport to Sydney on Thursday when security detected a suspicious item hidden in a hot chocolate container.   Victoria's bomb squad unit was called to the airport as passengers were evacuated, sparking an hours-long delays for the rest of the day.  On closer inspection, the item was revealed to be a laser hair removal device.  The young man, who did not want to be named, told 9News he initially followed other passengers outside during the evacuation before being approached by police.  He was taken into custody while officers tested the device and the powdered hot chocolate inside his bag. 'This is wild. You're being accused of being a terrorist, so that's a pretty big deal,' he said. 'They didn't really tell me what was going on. What was the suspicion, what did you find inside?' A young traveller said he was treated like a 'terrorist' after two innocuous items in his luggage sparked a lockdown at one of Australia's busiest airports The bomb squad was called after security flagged a couple of items in a passenger's luggage The man was eventually cleared by security and caught a later flight to Sydney.  Passengers were let back into the terminal five hours after the items were identified. Victoria Police Acting Inspector Nick Uebergang said the hair removal device was inside a cardboard hot chocolate container. He said the young passenger wasn't overly cooperative when explaining the contents of his luggage. Inspector Uebergang said the man's 'confident' attitude only fuelled more suspicion. 'It made things difficult, we could have averted things and got out of here a lot quicker,' Inspector Uebergang said. 'It's fair to say that the person that had the bag probably wasn't too cooperative with us to start off with, which made things more difficult. 'He wasn't giving too much information to us about what was in his bag.' A laser hair remover was found inside a cardboard cylinder hot chocolate container An airport spokesman said a person had been detained after a security scare. Avalon Airport also thanked police for their response to the incident. 'Today's response demonstrates the vigilance of the screening and security processes, with precautionary measures taken immediately to ensure the safety of passengers, staff and the broader community, which will always remain our highest priority,' the airport said. A police spokesman said the man was released without charge. On top of the security incident, a damaged X-ray machine caused further delays at Avalon Airport, which is located 50km from the Melbourne CBD. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.