Cairo - Security officials at Cairo's airport on Tuesday detained a Turkish man they said was trying smuggle antiquities out of Egypt, airport authorities said.

A source in the Cairo airport, speaking on to the German News Agency dpa on condition of anonymity, said the man was trying to carry out 27 Coptic Christian artifacts, including three antique bibles, textiles, and old sheets of papyrus bearing paintings of geometric shapes, animals and birds.

The 72-year-old Turkish man reportedly said he had bought the antique for 150 Egyptian pounds (27 dollars) from the medieval Cairo bazaar of Khan al-Khalili.

Airport security detained the man and transfered him to the custody of Egyptian police for further investigation. dpa