Spanish holidaymaker shuts down Munich airport after 'pressing wrong door button'

The returning holidaymaker, in his early 20s, was 'horrified' at the repercussions his mistake made, and to find himself under arrest.

He had just got off a flight from Bangkok after his break in Thailand and was due to catch a connecting flight via Lufthansa to Madrid from Germany's second-busiest airport.

But after popping to the toilet upon disembarking, the youth found the fellow passengers he had been following had already gone on ahead.

Not sure which way to go, he started walking, but was heading the wrong way down the passage.

And when he pressed a button to open a door that he thought led to the next stage of his trek to the boarding gate, he discovered too late that it was the back door to the one-way-only security checks.

On his trying to access a restricted area, alarms went off across the airport.

Normally, to get into the area, a non-Schengen-zone passenger would have had to jump security checks, immediately flagging up a safety issue.

Standard procedure for a situation of this nature meant all travellers had to leave security and re-enter, and part of the terminal was evacuated.

This meant dozens of planes were cancelled immediately, and as normal queues in the check-in area did not recover all day, delays continued and led to more flights being grounded – a total of 130, not counting those which were late departing.

In all, 1,200 arrivals and departures had been planned for today (Tuesday), meaning around 120,000 passengers due to travel.

The young man was arrested and could face criminal charges, but told the federal police he was 'horrified' that his honest mistake had shut down an entire airport and could lead him to being fined or even imprisoned.