AviationU.S. air marshal in quarantine after suspected Ebola syringe attack at Lagos airport
An American federal air marshal was placed in quarantine in Houston, Texas yesterday after being attacked Sunday night at the Lagos, Nigeria airport. The assailant wielded a syringe which contained an unknown substance, and was able to inject an unknown substance into the back of one of the air marshal’s arms. The marshal was able to board the United Airlines flight to Houston, where he was met by FBI agents and health workers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Fears of Ebola infection following attack on U.S. sky marshall // Source: flip.bg
An American federal air marshal was placed in quarantine in Houston, Texas yesterday after being attacked Sunday night at the Lagos, Nigeria airport. The assailant wielded a syringe which contained an unknown substance, and was able to inject an unknown substance into the back of one of the air marshal’s arms. ABC News reports that the air marshal, who was in Nigeria with a team of other marshals, was attacked when the group was in an unsecured area of the airport terminal in Lagos.
The marshal was able to board the United Airlines flight to Houston, where he was met by FBI agents and health workers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Fearing the syringe contained liquid contaminated with the Ebola virus, the authorities in Houston immediately put him into quarantine. The FBI said he was screened “on-scene… out of an abundance of caution.”
An FBI spokesperson said, “The victim did not exhibit any signs of illness during the flight and was transported to a hospital upon landing for further testing. None of the testing conducted has indicated a danger to other passengers.”
The infectious agents would not immediately manifest or make the patient contagious.
ABC News also reports that while the unknown assailant escaped, Nigerian officials said the other air marshals on the team secured the needle and brought it on the flight for testing in the United States.
Officials noted that U.S. air marshals travel undercover in plain clothes and an attacker would not be able to identify his target as an American law enforcement agent.
“While there is no immediate intelligence to confirm this was a targeted attack, this is our reminder that international cowards will attempt to take sneaky lethal shots at our honorable men and women abroad,” said Jon Adler, the national president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.
The Lagos airport has been considered a possible target for the Islamist group Boko Haram.
