Flights have been stopped from taking off at Cologne-Bonn airport in western Germany after a person managed to evade security controls, local media reported on Monday.

The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper reported that all flights on the tarmac had had to return to the terminal after the alarm was raised.

Neither a spokesman for the airport nor spokespeople for federal police in North-Rhine Westphalia could immediately confirm the reports.

Deutsche Telekom head of communications Philipp Schindera tweeted that his flight was stuck on the runway because of the alarm.

(The Local - Germany)