San Francisco airport worker stabbed, suspect detained

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A worker at the San Francisco International Airport was stabbed Tuesday, and a suspect was in custody, police said. It was the third security incident in a month at the airport south of San Francisco.

The man, who has not been identified, was attacked in the baggage claim area of Terminal 3 and taken to a hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

Officers located and detained a man in connection with the attack, police said, adding that no flights were affected. The police department gave no other information about the incident. An email seeking comment was not immediately answered Tuesday.

CLEAR, which provides airport security services, confirmed to KGO-TV that the victim was an employee working for its document identification system.

Francis Tsang, an airport spokesman, wouldn’t confirm that information and when asked if the airport plans to heighten security he said that “our Airport’s security protocols have worked to respond to and resolve these recent unrelated incidents. Safety and security remains our highest priority.”

On Saturday, an Oakland man was arrested for allegedly reporting a false bomb threat, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of people from the airport’s international terminal.

The bomb threat was reported Friday night, and authorities discovered a suspicious package, police said. Investigators at the airport “deemed the item possibly incendiary.”

Last month, a man attacked three people with a 2-foot (0.6-meter) machete in the airport’s international terminal before dropping a stack of papers with his writings.

Prosecutors said the man appeared to be in mental health distress and was initially taken to a psychiatric care facility before being transferred to jail.