EgyptAir hijacker surrenders
Updated 10:50hrs, March 29
The suspected hijacker of an EgyptAir flight has surrendered to authorities at Larnaca airport in Cyprus.
The hijacker emerged from the aircraft with his hands in the air according to state TV, reports Reuters.
The flight was hijacked earlier this morning and forced to divert to Larnaca Airport on the south coast of Cyprus.
Reports said flight MS181, an Airbus A320 carrying 81 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, was taken over after a passenger whowas wearing a ‘fake’ explosives belt.
It led to the closure of Larnaca Airport with flights being diverted to Paphos.
"The pilot said that a passenger told him he had an explosives vest and forced the plane to land in Larnaca," the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said in a statement.
A senior Alexandria airport official said those on board the flight when it took off included eight Americans, four Britons, four Dutch, two Belgians, one Italian and 30 Egyptians.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters the hijack was not a terrorist incident.
Reports suggest that the hijacker, believed to be an Egyptian in his fifties, requested to speak to his estranged Cypriot wife.
Diane
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