A quip on Twitter by a snowbound traveller has led to his arrest and bailing on suspicion of communicating a bomb hoax.
Tension over genuine threats to air travel led to the police move, thought to be the first arrest prompted by a tweet, the system's summaries of no more than 140 characters on what users are doing or thinking.
Frustrated by delays at Robin Hood airport, near Doncaster, 26-year-old Paul Chambers keyed in: "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" Police arrested him shortly afterwards under the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Bailed after more than six hours of questioning, Chambers also had his computer and iPhone briefly confiscated and the message was deleted from Twitter's website. Tweets of support and incredulity have since been posted by some of the 769 people regularly following his page, along with requests for interviews from journalists.
South Yorkshire police said that Chambers remained bailed because of the Twitter comment and added: "We advise members of the public to use such sites appropriately, as they are easily accessible to the public and any inappropriate use could cause unnecessary concern and lead to comments being reported to police."
Mike Morton, director of Robin Hood airport, said: "The safety of our passengers and staff is of the highest importance to us and we work closely with South Yorkshire police to make sure that any kind of unacceptable behaviour is dealt with immediately. We simply will not tolerate such activity."
Chambers describes himself on his Twitter profile as a "film-watching, football-loving, rubbish-talking, hyphen-using idiot". His tweets are kept locked, which means that only followers accepted by him can see them, rather than the public at large.