Security at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport came under heavy criticism on Wednesday after an undercover journalist claimed he had smuggled a fake bomb past security officials and that a colleague had placed it in the hold of a plane bound for Cairo.

The AD newspaper reported that Alberto Stegeman, a reporter with commercial tv station SBS6, claims he managed to use a borrowed security pass to take the fake bomb through security.
‘Passengers feel safe because all luggage is checked by 2,500 security workers,’ the paper quoted him as saying. ‘But the back door is wide open. Ground staff can come and go as they please. They don’t even have to go through a security gate’.
An airport spokesman declined to comment on the claim. Stegeman’s report, based on a three-month investigation, will be broadcast on Sunday.