Naked man tasered at Florida airport after bomb threat forces evacuation

Suspect apprehended wearing nothing but socks as he tries to escape through baggage carousel

A man is in custody after he was apprehended naked at a Florida airport shouting that he had planted a bomb.

The resulting scare led to more than 200 passengers being evacuated from Daytona Beach International Airport on Friday morning.

According to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood the man – who was identified as 25-year-old John Greenwood – entered the airport at about 6am, fully clothed and carrying a bag.

After leaving his bag and clothes in an under-construction women’s toilets, he emerged wearing nothing but a pair of socks.

Mr Chitwood told Fox News the suspect shouted: "We gotta get out of here, I planted a bomb in the bathroom”.

He attempted to escape onto the tarmac through a baggage carousel, where the police tasered and apprehended him.

The Volusia County Sheriff's Department shared footage from the incident, in which police repeatedly ask him to get on his stomach and ultimately stun him.

Airport officials confirmed that something had been placed in the wall in the women’s toilets, and police and bomb squads were called in to check for a potential bomb.

Authorities quickly confirmed there were no explosive devices in the airport, and it was reopened at about 9.40am.

“There was an attempted security breach in the baggage claim area. The suspect was apprehended by sheriff’s deputies and during that apprehension he made a bomb threat,” said the airport in a statement.

Travellers had been evacuated to the airport’s short-term parking area, and one of them – Nathan Blum – tweeted that there had been a man running around the airport before being “tackled and tased”.

Mr Greenwood was “well known” to the police, according to Mr Chitwood, and has been arrested on numerous occasions previously.

He will now face several charges including burglary, false report concerning planting a bomb, criminal mischief, resisting arrest without violence and exposure of sexual organs. Some of these charges will be federal.