Passengers evacuated from Italian airport after 'lunatic' sets fire to check-in desks

A major Italian airport was forced to close off parts of its terminal on Wednesday after a man reportedly set fire to check-in desks and caused damage with a hammer.

Terminal 1 of Milan Malpensa Airport was partially evacuated after a "lunatic set fire to the check-in area", according to the Lombardy Airports Association.

"The situation was quickly brought under control after the arrest of the madman who set fire to and destroyed several check-in counters," the association wrote on X.

The suspect has been identified by Italian media as a 28-year-old man from Mali. He'll reportedly appear in court for a fast-track hearing tomorrow.

The incident happened at around 11 am when the man doused check-in counters with flammable liquid before setting them alight, also damaging the nearby walls and information screens with a hammer, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Italian border force officers managed to restrain the man, while airport firefighters worked to put out the blaze, Varese News reported.

A video of the incident shared on social media shows passengers fleeing the check-in area as black smoke billows from a fire. A man is then seen approaching the suspect and hitting him on the head with a fire extinguisher, causing him to fall to the ground. Several other men then help to pin down the suspect, and one of them throws a hammer away.

The footage could not be independently verified by Euronews.

Photographs shared by the Lombardy Airports Association on X show hundreds of passengers standing outside the terminal next to fire extinguishers, as well as firefighters working inside the evacuated check-in areas — which are blanketed in black smoke.

A spokesperson for the provincial fire department told Italian media that "airport operations continued without significant disruption to air traffic".

Last month, flights were delayed at another airport in the city — Milan Bergamo — due to the death of a man who was sucked into the engine of a plane, local media reported.