Spritz of Cologne Triggers Major Alert

An innocent spray of cologne from a Saudi Arabian college student caused authorities in Philadelphia to quarantine a hospital emergency room, a doughnut shop and a drug store on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident began at Philadelphia International Airport around 12:45 a.m. EST, when the 22-year-old man arrived at a security checkpoint while trying to make a flight to Saudi Arabia after a day of travel problems spawned by a major snowstorm.

The student’s visa was fine, the FBI said later. But airport security asked him about a container of liquid in his luggage. While trying to show that the container was a bottle of cologne, the man inadvertently sprayed its aromatic contents on two airport security guards, officials said.

“First he sprayed himself,” said FBI special agent Linda Vizi. “It was merely to demonstrate that he had cologne.”

But the action prompted airport security to issue a code-red hazardous materials alert, which brought FBI agents, city police officers and hazardous materials specialists from the Philadelphia Fire Department to the site.

Fearing the cologne could be a harmful biological or chemical agent, authorities sent the two guards to a nearby hospital, which quarantined its emergency room for three hours until what hospital officials referred to as “the unknown substance” could be identified as cologne.

Two city police officers, who also came into contact with the cologne while examining its container, later went off to a doughnut shop and a 24-hour pharmacy in Philadelphia, officials said. When authorities found out, they ordered both stores shut for 45 minutes until the analysis was complete.

The Saudi student, whom authorities did not identify, was questioned by the FBI and released without charges.

“We were able to verify his status, and the fire department was able to verify that what he had was cologne,” Vizi said.