Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. (Fotolia)

Authorities closed part of Amsterdam Schiphol airport on Wednesday after discovering what they suspected was a World War Two bomb, the Dutch airport said.

“Terminal C has been evacuated as a precautionary measure,” a Schiphol airport spokeswoman said, due to a “serious suspicion” the airport had found a bomb from the war that ended in 1945.

“This will have a big impact. We can park planes somewhere else to some extent but at some point it will lead to cancellations or delays,” she said.

The terminal handles flights to the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone, which includes most European destinations, including France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

The spokeswoman said an explosives team was on its way to inspect the object.

Schiphol is Europe’s fifth busiest airport. It handled around 45 million passengers in 2010.