Bomb threat on flight to Hamburg with 177 people on board

Police received anonymous email from 'Islamic Caliphate in Europe' warning of bomb

German authorities have launched an investigation into the bomb threat on an Air Berlin flight. (Getty)

All flights to and from Hamburg in Germany were grounded after a police received a threat from a group calling itself "Isamic Caliphate in Europe" saying a bomb had been placed on an incoming plane.

The anonymous email warned there was a bomb on an Air Berlin flight with 170 passengers and seven air crew on board. The Airbus A320 had taken off from Munich and was on its way to Hamburg when police received the email purporting to come from “the Islamic Caliphate in Europe”.

All flights into and out of Hamburg were grounded before the jet landed safely and was moved to a position some distance from the airport and other planes.

According to German news site theLocal.de, a police spokesman said: “The risk of an attack was labelled as high. You can assume from that that we took the threat seriously.”

Police then searched the luggage of every passenger on board and used sniffer dogs to search for explosives, but no bomb was found.

An investigation has been launched by state security to search for those responsible for sending the email on Sunday afternoon.

The incident only caused a “minimal effect” on air traffic in and out of Hamburg, an airport spokesperson said.