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| EgyptAir plane hijacked, diverted to Cyprus | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| CAIRO — An Egyptian passenger plane carrying as many as 88 passengers and several crewmembers was hijacked by a passenger wearing an explosive belt and forced to land in Cyprus Tuesday, according to the country’s civil aviation authority. | |
| Egypt Air flight MS 181 was flying from the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria to the capital, Cairo, and was scheduled to land at 7.15 am. Instead, the plane was diverted to Larnaca, Cyprus, and there were suspicions of a bomb aboard, a Cypriot government official said. | |
| Egypt Air tweeted that its flight was “officially hijacked.” Later, it tweeted that “negotiations ... resulted in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners.” It was not immediately clear how many crewmembers were on board the flight. | |
| Passengers were seen disembarking in two waves from the Airbus at Larnaca airport carrying luggage. | |
| Unconfirmed reports said American and British citizens were aboard the flight. Spokesmen from the U.S. embassy and the British Foreign Ministry in Cairo said they were working to establish whether any of their nationals were on board the hijacked flight. | |
| Egypt state television reported the hijacker was a Egyptian national named Ibrahim Samaha. Cyrpriot state media reported that he may have had personal, rather than political, motives. Local Cypriot media was reporting he is demanding asylum in Cyprus, but those reports were not immediately confirmed. | |
| Egypt Air said here were 88 passengers on the plane. | |
| The flight started out in Saudi Arabia before making a stop in Alexandria, news reports said. It was not clear how many people got on or off in Alexandria. | |
| Reports said the hijacker threatened the pilot with an explosive during the flight. | |
| If the hijacker was able to get on the flight with an explosives belt or other kind of arms, it would be a major embarrassment to the Egyptian government and highlight the lingering concerns among aviation authorities and analysts of the country’s poor security at airports. | |
| The hijacking arrives as militant attacks in Egypt have surged in recent years, driving tourists and foreign investors away as the government struggles to revive the economy. | |
| Egypt’s American-backed military is battling an Islamic State affiliate in the country’s northern Sinai Peninsula. In October, a Russian passenger plane was brought down over the Sinai by a bomb planted aboard, an attack that was claimed by the Islamic State. | |
| Deane reported from London. Heba Habib contributed from Cairo. | |
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