Airport alert over grandmother's gun

A 66-year-old grandmother was stopped boarding a flight to Germany yesterday with a handgun in her luggage.

The pensioner from Liverpool thought the 80-year-old double-barrelled pistol was part of a coffee percolator that she was taking on holiday. The woman and her husband caused an alert when scanners spotted the weapon in her hand baggage as she made her way through security checks at Manchester airport for a Lufthansa flight to Zurich. Police said the gun, which was not loaded, had belonged to the woman's father. She received a caution over the incident and was taken to catch a later flight.