Security breach causes delays, morning chaos at Melbourne airport

A security breach has led to chaotic scenes at Melbourne airport this morning with passengers having to be re-screened.

Travellers took to social media early Tuesday morning sharing pictures of crowded terminals and long queues as security procedures had to be carried out again.

"A security breach at Melbourne Airport has forced everyone including our fully loaded plane to evacuate the terminal and be sent back through security screening," one passenger said.

"They’ve informed us that someone has slipped through the security gates and entered the terminal without screening."

Qantas manages security operations in Terminal 1 of the airport and confirmed to Yahoo News Australia that a traveller had inadvertently slipped into the screened area of the terminal without going through security protocols.

As a result, flights are now facing delays.

"A passenger appears to have inadvertently passed from an 'unscreened' area to a 'screened' area of the airport in Melbourne. As a precaution all Qantas operations have been put on hold and passengers in the terminal are being re-screened, which is causing delays to some services this morning," Qantas said in a statement to Yahoo.

"Safety is our number one priority, but we know this disruption is causing some inconvenience for our passengers and we apologise for that. We are investigating how this incident occurred."

A similar incident unfolded at Sydney airport last month in which more than 200 Qantas passengers were escorted off a plane and through to airport security. In that instance, the airline realised that one person had inadvertently bypassed screening at Sydney airport before boarding the plane.

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