German police have described radiation-firing full body scanners as “useless”, following a 10-month trial, during which time alarm was unnecessarily raised far too frequently.

As reported by AFP:

“The weekly Welt am Sonntag, quoting a police report, said 35 percent of the 730,000 passengers checked by the scanners set off the alarm more than once despite being innocent.”

That equates to an alarm being set off without reason in roughly seven out of every ten cases.

The police report noted that the machines struggled to cope with layers of clothing, boots and zip fasteners.

In, addition, in 10 percent of cases the passenger’s posture set off the alarm.