PETALING JAYA: A buzzing sex toy mistaken for a bomb delayed a Thai AirAsia flight to Bangkok on Wednesday morning.

Britain’s Daily Star reported that the vibrator caused panic among staff when they heard a loud humming as they were loading a green rucksack onto the plane.

Fearing that it was an explosive device, the baggage handlers radioed for bomb disposal experts who rushed to the runway at Chiang Mai International Airport.

But they could breathe a sigh of relief when they discovered that the sound had come from a silver vibrating bullet with a speed dial that had accidentally been turned on.

“We noticed the bag was shaking and there was a buzzing noise coming from inside.

“Obviously we were pretty scared because this could have been a bomb or some other explosive device.

“But when the experts arrived they opened up the package and it was just a sex toy.

“The passenger is unaware that their bag caused a security alert. I think they would be deeply embarrassed if they found out,” a baggage handler was quoted as saying.

The flight was scheduled to leave Chiang Mai International Airport in Thailand for Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport at 8.25am on Wednesday.

It took off shortly after 8.30 am – with the passenger oblivious that the rucksack had caused panic.

A Thai AirAsia spokesman said the airline did not confiscate the item as it did not threaten aviation security.

“The flight was delayed by five minutes,” the spokesman told the Daily Star.

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There IS no risk of Bangkok, other central provinces and their industrial estates suffering flooding as severe as that which caused chaos in the city in 2011, according to the Royal Irrigation Department.

“Don’t worry. Major dams are not even half full now,” the department’s director-general Suthep Noipairoj said yesterday.

He pointed out that although the Kwai Noi and Pasak Jolasid dams were releasing water, the big Bhumibol and Sirikit dams could take in more water. “Bhumibol Dam is only 44 per cent full,” he said.

He added that the water volume flowing past the Bang Sai station in Ayutthaya yesterday was just at 1,800 cubic metres per second, far less than the 3,900 cubic metres in early October 2011.

“The Chao Phraya River can accommodate up to 3,500 cubic metres of water without overflowing,” he explained. He said many water-retention areas in the Central region were also ready to take in run-off water if required.

Suthep said that while some areas in the Chao Phraya Basin were now flooded, most were in flood-prone areas or outside embankment zones.

His department has now issued early warnings to people living in low-lying zones along the Chao Phraya River and Pasak River in Uthai Thani, Chainai Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Angthong, Ayutthaya, Lop Buri and Suphan Buri provinces to brace for overflowing.

Sompong Wiangkaew, who heads the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Drainage and Sewerage Department, said there was no need for Bangkok residents to worry about floods as big as the ones in 2011.

Five years ago, run-off water from the upper part of the country swamped many districts in Bangkok. Even Don Mueang Airport was under water.

In 2011, the run-offs were massive in the wake of five storms – Haima, Nock-Ten, Hai Tang, Nesat and Nalgae. “We are in far different situations now,” Sompong said.

He said recent floods in Bangkok took place because of continued downpours.

“The BMA can drain rainwater from public roads within four hours,” he said. “We are also trying to solve flood-prone spots such as areas bordering Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi by installing pumps there.”

Interior Ministry permanent secretary Kritsada Boonrat, meanwhile, instructed provincial governors, district chiefs, kamnans, village heads and executives of local administrative organisations to work closely with their province’s single command for water management.

“In the event that some areas must be used to retain excess water to prevent flooding in some important zones, officials must communicate with the affected people to create mutual understanding and specify clearly what remedial actions they will get,” Kritsada’s order said.

In Angthong, Sawaengha district chief Thitilak Saeng-ngarm said more than 2,000 rai (320 hectares) of farmland in her area had been hit by floods. “We are using pumps to cushion farmers from adverse impacts,” she said.

Local farmers are now racing against time to try to harvest their crops before they get completely swamped.

Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat said floods had hit many historical sites in the country including the famous Chaiwatthanaram Temple in Ayutthaya, “but the impacts are not critical”.

A street vendor of spring onion pancakes whose popularity skyrocketed because of a favourable review in a BBC documentary has been shut down for operating without a license.

It is not expected to reopen until the authorities decide how to handle the matter.

The roadside stall, specialising in the traditional Shanghai snack－also known as scallion pancakes－has drawn a huge number of fans who wait every day to buy them, even lining up before dawn without knowing or caring that the owner, Wu Gencheng, can’t get his expired license renewed.

The commercial administration department of the city’s Huangpu district said on Wednesday that it will discuss the situation with environmental protection authorities and the neighborhood committee to draw up a solution for Wu, who has been making and selling the snack at his home on the first floor of an old residential building for 13 years.

“No matter how popular it is, we can’t give special privileges. We’ll help the stall to operate legitimately,” the department said in a written statement delivered to China Daily.

Wu, 60, lives with a disability－a severe humpback. He has been making the pancakes since 1982 at different locations in Shanghai until he moved the microbusiness back to his home.

Although the license could not be renewed because doing business at a private residence is not allowed, the tasty pancake, depicted as “deliciously crisp, doughy and very savory” in the BBC documentary broadcast earlier this year, won many people’s hearts.

“I thought about applying for a business license, but I knew I’d fail because it was in a residential building,” Wu said.

It’s not the first time Wu’s stall has been at the centre of controversy. He was ordered to shut down in July after someone complained of the stall’s kitchen exhaust and the inconvenience caused on other residents in the building.

Other companies offered to co-operate with Wu and produce the snack at a legal venue, but he rejected all of them, citing health, rent and other reasons.

“I made about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) every month by selling the pancakes,” he said. “But rent for a shop in the area is nearly 30,000 yuan, and I don’t want to work far away from home as I cannot stand it physically.”

Despite being of retirement age, he said he needed the business to carry on because it’s the only source of income for him and his younger brother, who has a mental disorder.

Wu’s story generated widespread sympathy among web users, who said bureaucracy was to blame for shutting down the popular stall over a trivial matter like licensing, not over food safety or other good reasons.

Customers unaware of the stall’s closure continued to come on Wednesday.

“Local snacks are usually a name card of a place and the taste of a hometown,” said Zhong Peng, who works nearby and who bought Wu’s pancakes regularly. “But such low-profit businesses are disappearing in the waves of soaring real estate prices.”