Extra security on planes to the US were introduced at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on Saturday following what most media reports are now saying was a failed terrorist attempt to blow up a Northwest Airline plane on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

According to media reports, passengers on flight 253 heard a bang shortly before landing and saw flames and smoke coming from one of the seats where a 23-year-old Nigerian man was seated.
The man, who was injured by the explosion, was overpowered by passengers and crew. It is unclear whether anyone else was hurt.
Initially news organisations reported that the explosion was caused by fireworks.
The man is in custody and the FBI is said to be investigating the incident.
Schiphol airport has tightened security on its planes following a request from the US and is investigating how the man, who is believed to have been in transit from Lagos, was allowed onto the Detroit plane.
It seems the man, who has been named as Abdull Mudallad by the BBC quoting US congressman Peter King of the Homeland Security Committee, should not have been allowed onto the plane as he is on a database of people with ‘a significant terrorist connection’.
The extra safety measures at Schiphol include frisking all passengers travelling to the US and stricter control on luggage. An airport spokesman told the media that the tighter security is not expected to lead to delays as extra staff have been called in.
Various news organisations report that the man arrested has claimed to be working for al-Qaida. According to the BBC, officials say the man tried to cause an explosion by mixing powder with a liquid but that this failed to go off properly.
The Nigerian man arrested travelled to Schiphol on KLM flight 588. Dutch airline KLM was not responsible for checking passengers who boarded the flight from Nigeria to Schiphol, a KLM spokeswoman told ANP news service on Saturday. ANP identified the man as Farouk Abdulmutallab.
‘We just transport people,’ she is reported to have said, adding that security control is the task of local authorities, such as the military police at Schiphol.