London: Britain tightened airline security on flights from Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa on Tuesday, banning laptops and tablet computers from the plane cabin hours after the US announced similar security warning.
Passengers flying directly to Britain from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey will be required to place those devices and large phones into hold luggage, a government spokesman said.
"The additional security measures may cause some disruption for passengers and flights, and we understand the frustration that will cause, but our top priority will always be to maintain the safety of British nationals," he said in a statement.
The British ban only involves six countries, two of which -- Lebanon and Tunisia -- do not feature on the US list. Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and United Arab Emirates are on the US list, but not the British one.
Prime Minister Theresa May has chaired a number of meetings on aviation security over the last few weeks, including on Tuesday morning, where the new measures were agreed, he said.
"We will not hesitate to act in order to maintain the safety of the travelling public and we will work closely with our international partners to minimise any disruption these new measures may cause."
Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from eight countries had been given 96 hours to ban devices bigger than a mobile phone from the cabin.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Passengers flying directly to Britain from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey will be required to place those devices and large phones into hold luggage, a government spokesman said.
"The additional security measures may cause some disruption for passengers and flights, and we understand the frustration that will cause, but our top priority will always be to maintain the safety of British nationals," he said in a statement.
The British ban only involves six countries, two of which -- Lebanon and Tunisia -- do not feature on the US list. Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and United Arab Emirates are on the US list, but not the British one.
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Prime Minister Theresa May has chaired a number of meetings on aviation security over the last few weeks, including on Tuesday morning, where the new measures were agreed, he said.
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"We will not hesitate to act in order to maintain the safety of the travelling public and we will work closely with our international partners to minimise any disruption these new measures may cause."
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Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from eight countries had been given 96 hours to ban devices bigger than a mobile phone from the cabin.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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