Tourist pranks passengers by announcing six-hour flight delays at Greek airport

A British man was allegedly held in a police questioning room for hours after he tricked fellow passengers by announcing fake flight delays at an airport in Greece.

The man, whose name has not been shared, was filmed taking over the tannoy system at an unattended boarding gate desk in Zakynthos Airport on the island of Zante on Friday 12 August.

Over the speakers, he told travellers waiting at the gates that the flight to London Gatwick – on which he is believed to have been scheduled to travel himself – would be delayed by six hours.

The man, who appears to be in his early 20s, then adds: “Unfortunately, the flight to Manchester has been delayed by six hours.”

There was no flight from Zante to Manchester that day, a crucial detail that may have helped alert airport officials to the prank.

In footage posted on social media, an airport security guard storms over to the desk to confront the man.

A police officer follows the guard, who leads the man away from the desk by grabbing his arm.

The man was reportedly separated from his friends and detained for questioning for three hours.

Sam Wilson, 22, filmed the antics after hearing the announcements while awaiting his flight to Birmingham.

He claimed that the man was released after three hours of sitting in an empty room after the police had threatened to confiscate his passport for three days.

It is not known whether the prankster was able to make his flight to London, or whether he had to book another flight instead.

Mr Wilson, a sales manager from Staffordshire, told MailOnline: “We were waiting for the gates to open when we just heard a few strange announcements. When I looked up I just saw him on the microphone, so I had to get my phone out.

“He made around three or four announcements about flights being delayed a number of hours. The ones I captured was Gatwick for six hours and seeing people’s reactions was hilarious as half the airport couldn’t even see him.

“Although, he most likely got caught due to the last announcement which was ‘the flight to Manchester has been delayed by six hours’ when there wasn’t even a flight to Manchester.

“His friends were extremely worried about him and they just took him away and didn’t know what to do or whether to leave him.

“After the TikTok was made I did find out he was released after the airport threatened to hold him in the airport and confiscate his passport for three days but after a while of him just sitting in and empty room, they just told him to go.”