Ground handling staff have been arrested with cellphones in their trousers as well as a hidden camera and perfume during ongoing stop-and-searches at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

Thirty-three people have been arrested at the airport since the start of the peak holiday season.

Airport spokesperson Samukelo Khambule, said in an update on Thursday that security operations on the terminal, or landside, part of the airport generated 11 cases of trespassing as part of a drive to remove loiterers.

“Searches on the airside of possible places of concealment led to the separate discoveries of five tools that could be used to open bags. The tools seized include a box cutter, a screwdriver and three items fashioned from pieces of metal,” she said.

Airport rules stipulate that only authorised engineering and maintenance employees may have tools on the airside, and they have to be accounted for.

Carabiners, used for camping in the outdoors, are banned from the airside after being identified as tools used to open luggage.

A total of 4,400 people and 661 vehicles have been stopped and searched since the peak holiday season started.

A ground handling company employee was “found with a new camera concealed in his clothing during a search at one of the airport’s exit gates for employees” on December 31, the airport said in a statement.

On the same day, another ground handling company employee searched at an exit was found wearing two pairs of trousers. Six cellphones were found concealed in the second pair of trousers and he was promptly arrested.

Yet another ground handling company staffer was arrested on January 6 in possession of perfume. Perfume bottles and containers are not allowed on the airside.