London, Jan. 21: A British student was being held in an American jail last night after joking to airport security on three occasions that she was carrying a bomb.

Samantha Marson, 21, was charged with a second degree felony — which in theory carries a 15-year jail term — after laughing and telling staff at a checkpoint that her hand luggage contained explosives. She was arrested while passing through Miami International Airport for a London-bound British Airways flight. When she reached the checkpoint, she placed her rucksack on a conveyor belt and told a transportation security administration screener: “Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here”.

The police report said she was asked to repeat herself twice more, and on both occasions cracked the same “joke”.

She was immediately handcuffed and placed in a holding cell and, after being questioned, charged with making a false report about a bomb. She was taken to the women’s annexe of Miami-Dade county jail where she will be held on remand for as long as six months waiting for the case to come to trial. She will be released on bail if she can come up with a £2,700 bond.

Marson, from Barnes, south-west London, was on her way back to Britain having spent three months with her boyfriend, Charlie Schmidt, 26, a sailor in the US navy. She was returning to London on Saturday to renew her visa. Police said she was in floods of tears after her arrest and apologised.