Hundreds of British tourists stranded after police explode 'suspect package' at Ibiza airport

Huge queues formed outside the airport as experts inside carried out a controlled explosion on the package. There were fears that the incident was masterminded by the Basque terrorist group ETA, which has recently resumed its violent campaign.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said that 67 of its customers were at the airport in Ibiza. Thirty seven were due to fly to Luton and 30 to Doncaster, he said.

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"They are outside, with our staff and security personnel. We are awaiting new departure times for passengers," he said.

Local journalist Bill Bond told Sky News police had detonated a suspect package but after investigation found it to be empty.

"The police are now saying they did a controlled explosion," he said.

"And when they were able to open the box police found it was empty."

When asked if he thought the threats came from ETA Mr Bond added: "They have frequently targeted tourist resorts in the past - they call it economic terrorism."

A spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said the organisation was in touch with tour operators about the matter.

She advised those with concerns to contact their tour operators or airlines. "It is likely to cause delays," she said.

A spokesman for Thomson said three of its flights leaving Ibiza had been held up by the incident. "We are hoping some kind of normality will return in the next few hours but at the moment we have 900-plus people unable to fly home," said Stephen Lane. Some are even sitting on planes, on the tarmac."

The flights were supposed to be heading for Glasgow, Gatwick and Doncaster. "We hope it will only be a matter of a short delay," Mr Lane said.

Thomson did not have any planes heading for Ibiza for a few hours, by which time it was hoped the situation would be resolved.

A spokeswoman for Monarch Airlines said it had four flights heading to Ibiza in the middle of this evening, from Luton, Birmingham, Gatwick and Manchester. They then turn around in the early hours and come back. "We are keeping track of the situation," said Leah Rosewell.

There were conflicting reports about what had happened at the airport.

According to airport officials and press reports, Spanish police acting on a telephoned bomb threat used a controlled explosion to detonate the suspect package.

But the Foreign Office said its information was that there had not been a controlled explosion.

However, Benjamin Maprice, an official at Ibiza Airport, said: "The airport was closed because there was an explosion."

He was unable to comment further on when the airport would be fully reopened or who was responsible for the bomb threat.

While the authorities have not immediately said who they believed was behind the incident, reports on the websites of dailies El Pais, El Mundo and La Vanguardia's said three warnings had been received by Basque newspaper Gara, which ETA often uses as a conduit for bomb warnings.

A spokeswoman for the AENA airport authority, which controls Spain's airports, said the airport had been closed to outgoing and incoming flights.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The figure we have been given is that 5,000 people have been evacuated from the airport."

He did not know how many British people were included in this figure.

Gatwick Airport has six flights due to go out to Ibiza today, affecting around 1,000 people. It is trying to find alternative airports.

It advised those affected to contact their airline.

The bomb threat was made just weeks after ETA called off a 15-month ceasefire, blaming the government for refusing to make concessions in the peace process and warning it was once again becoming active "on all fronts." There have been fears that renewed ETA violence was imminent.

This was heightened after Civil Guards found a car near the southern Spanish town of Ayamonte, near the border with Portugal, which contained more than 100 kilograms of explosive material, detonators, timers and a bomb-making manual in the Basque language.

ETA has attacked airports before. In December 2006 a car bombing killed two people at Madrid's Barajas airport, although the group insisted at the time that it had not meant to kill anyone and that its ceasefire continued. ETA's name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom.

It has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign for a separate Basque state.