Man arrested for bomb threat hoax at Shanghai airport

SHANGHAI - A man who allegedly made a hoax bomb threat at Shanghai Pudong International Airport last Friday was captured in the southwestern Sichuan province Sunday, local authorities confirmed Monday.

The airport received an anonymous phone call at 6:36 pm on last Friday saying that a bomb was onboard flight CA406, according to the local police.

Police evacuated the passengers to inspect the plane and later discovered the threat was a hoax and there was no explosive device.

The flight, scheduled to take off at 6:30 pm, took off at 11:23 pm after a delay of about 5 hours.

The Shanghai police launched an investigation into the case and eventually detained the suspect, surnamed Pu, in the city of Guangyuan in Sichuan province Sunday night.

Pu confessed he gave false information so as to extort some money, the police said.