LONDON (AP) — A British man being treated for Ebola in Congo is being evacuated to the U.K., the government said Thursday.
The man, believed to be a healthcare worker, is the first British patient evacuated from the current outbreak of the deadly virus, and the third person to have tested positive to return to Europe.
The patient is expected to be taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a high level isolation unit that was used to treat patients from an Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2015.
The Foreign Office said the U.K.’s procedures for dealing with infectious diseases had been activated and the risk to the public from Ebola is low.
France confirmed a case in June in a doctor — since recovered — who had returned from a humanitarian mission in Congo. A Swiss woman believed to have contracted the virus in Uganda was medically evacuated to Geneva for treatment last month and her husband, a diplomat, was held in isolation in Zurich.
The disease spreading in some of Congo’s remotest provinces has infected 10,600 people, more than 5,100 of whom have died. It’s spread to 67 health zones across eight provinces, from three zones when it was first declared in May.
“The infection of a British healthcare worker with Ebola is deeply concerning, but it is not entirely unexpected,” said Dr. Damien Tully, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “Healthcare workers are on the front line of these outbreaks, often treating severely ill patients under extremely challenging conditions. Even with rigorous protective measures, accidental exposures can occur.”
A patient is being transferred in a isolation unit from a rescue aircraft to a rescue helicopter of Swiss Air Rescue at Zurich Airport on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in Zurich, Switzerland. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP)
A healthcare worker in protective clothing is disinfected by a colleague inside a treatment center for Ebola patients in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)
MILAN (AP) — Multiple flights in Europe made emergency landings on Thursday after being diverted because of bomb threats, authorities said. The incidents followed hoax bomb threats earlier this week that prompted searches, diversions and in one case a military escort.
More than a dozen flights from cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw were confirmed to have been targeted with bomb threats, most diverted to other airports for emergency landings while others landed safely at their destinations. So far inspections have not turned up hazardous or suspicious materials.
Such threats are not new, but the latest incidents come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and other disruptions, like attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers to alert apps. Authorities have warned that hybrid threats abound.
Czech police said searches of another four planes that landed in Prague after being targeted by bomb threats were clear. They have not given details on where the flights originated.
Earlier, a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in western France because of a bomb threat, the French prime minister’s office said. The flight landed safely at the base in Evreux in Normandy, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said. All 151 passengers and six crew members were safe and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane, the office said.
It added that it was following the situation in real time. No other information was immediately released.
A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed at its destination, where inspections found no hazardous or suspicious items, the airline said. A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in Bucharest following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said.
A Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome landed safely at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport at around 9:30 a.m., escorted by Italian air force fighter jets, according to an airport official with knowledge of the situation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
An emailed bomb threat had been received, and security clearance procedures by police bomb disposal experts were completed, with no explosives found, the official said.
A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna following a mail to Polish authorities containing an abstract threat, said Stefan Loidl, a police spokesperson in Lower Austria province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw.
He said there was also an abstract threat to Vienna Airport concerning four other flights, which he declined to identify, but operations were not disrupted.
Polish authorities checked a LOT flight that was about to depart from Warsaw to Paris on Thursday morning after a threat was reported at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport, said airport spokesman Piotr Rudzki. No threat was ultimately identified. One runway at Chopin airport was temporarily closed while authorities carried out standard security procedures.
Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. Two of the flights, one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid, landed safely at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport, airport officials told reporters. The third Sofia-bound flight, from London’s Stansted Airport to Sofia, had been diverted and landed safely at the airport in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.
Several flights across Europe received hoax bomb threats earlier this week that prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, an escort by the Italian air force until landing, officials said.
The flights included Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.
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Charlton reported from Paris and Biller from Rome. Associated Press writers throughout Europe contributed to this report.
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
