Uma Sudhir for NDTV

Tirupati, Jul 28: Primitive methods are being used to check baggage; making it a sitting duck for anyone harbouring plans to strike terror at the airport here.

Security personnel have been brought in from Chennai to dig into every piece of check-in baggage because the luggage scanning X-ray machine has not been working for the last ten days.

''This is such a sensitive area and yet the X-ray machine is out of order for 15 days. This reflects an attitude of extreme carelessness.

''Some Air Deccan passengers went in to board the flight without even getting their luggage checked,'' said Sanjay Agrawal, passenger.

Everyday, at least six flights take off from Tirupati airport.

''There is no facility to check the baggage. So guards have been appointed who are making you open bags two-three times,'' said Mohammed Ashraf, passenger.

The airport manager at Tirupati was not available for comments.

But security officers who were manually checking the check-in baggage said that it has been at least 10 days since the X-ray scanning machine developed major problem, which could not be rectified.

Tirumala-Tirupati is considered high on the hit list for a terror strike, and experts say, not treating this as a security emergency is like asking Tirupati's Lord Balaji to directly take charge of people's safety.