The man holding 11 people, including four ‘foreigners’, hostage on an Egyptian passenger jet at a Cypriot airport after hijacking the plane with a suicide vest is demanding political asylum.
EgyptAir MS181, carrying 62 people, including eight Brits and ten Americans, was en-route from Alexandria to Cairo when it was hijacked, forcing it to land at Larnaca airport, Cyprus.
Negotiations with the hijacker has since resulted in the release of a majority of the hostages, except for the crew and four foreigners, EgyptAir said.
The hijacker has been identified as a man named Ibrahim Samaha, who is asking for a translator and political asylum, Cypriot state television reports.
Samaha, believed to be a 27-year-old Egyptian national, continues to hold the crew and four passengers of unknown nationalities hostage on the tarmac.
The hijacking of the plane, carrying 55 passengers and a crew of seven, was confirmed by EgyptAir on Twitter at 7.40am GMT.
The plane diverted to Cyprus after a man on the flight threatened to detonate a belt or a vest containing explosives, Egypt’s civil aviation authority said.
Egyptian newsite Youm7 is reporting that the attacker told the pilot to fly to Turkey but was told they did not have enough fuel.
Hijackers demanded that authorities leave the runway ‘in order to release women and children passengers’, former EU Commissioner for Education, Androulla Vassiliou, tweeted.
One armed hijacker took control of the Airbus A320 at 8.30am (6.30am GMT), police spokesman Andreas Angelides said.
The hijacking occurred in Cyprus’s flight information region and the airliner was diverted to Larnaca, where the plane currently sits on the runway.
Questions have been raised as to how the hijacker was able to embark on the plane wearing the suicide vest.
Egyptian authorities promised to tighten airport security in the wake of the downing of a Russian Metrojet airplane in October last year, where all 224 passengers died.
Investigations later found that explosives had been smuggled onto the Airbus A321-231, most likely at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, Egypt, before take-off.
From Dailymail
