BOSTON: A 19-year-old girl student was arrested at gunpoint at Boston airport on Friday after walking into the terminal with what authorities believed to be a bomb strapped to her chest, police said.

The woman had a computer circuit board, a battery and exposed wires in plain view over a black-hooded sweatshirt, state police major Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport, told reporters.

Pare said an airport worker spotted the bizarre contraption on the woman and called state police, who responded with a canine and bomb disposal team. The woman later told police the circuit board with lights on it was a work of art.

“She followed instructions as required by the state police,” Pare told reporters. “Thankfully, because she followed instructions as required, she ended up in a cell as opposed to the morgue.”

“Had she not followed the instructions, deadly force may have been used,” he said.

Security alerts have been a frequent occurrence in the United States ever since the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, the vast majority of which turn out to be either false alarms or hoaxes.—AFP