A Turkish passenger aircraft was hijacked by two hijackers en route from northern Cyprus to Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, on Saturday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The hijackers wanted to fly the plane to Iranian capital city of Tehran after it took off from the Ercan Airport in Nicosia in northern Cyprus at 07:15 a.m. (0415 GMT), according to the report.
When pilots said they needed to refuel, the hijackers tried to storm the cockpit but they could not manage it, Anatolia said, adding that they took one of the hostesses hostage and threatened to harm her.
The plane later landed at an airport in the southern Turkish city of Antalya for refuelling and the pilots left the airplane, said the report.
There are 136 passengers and six crew members on board the plane, operated by the private Turkish airline company Atlas Jet, it added.
Sources were quoted as saying that one of the hijackers was speaking Arabic, and that one of them had a knife and the other was carrying a package which he claimed to be a bomb.
Source: Xinhua
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