All Hostages Freed from Hijacked Turkish Plane

All of the passengers and crew from a Turkish plane hijacked earlier on Saturday have been released and the two hijackers have given themselves up, private television NTV reported.

|PIC1|The plane was hijacked as it headed to Istanbul from northern Cyprus and was forced to land in Antalya in southern Turkey.

Earlier reports said the Turkish passenger plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was hijacked and forced to land in Turkey where most of the 136 passengers were freed but six hostages left behind.

The pilots at that time had left the plane, the Transport Ministry said, and private broadcaster CNN Turk reported that the hijackers were demanding a pilot back on the plane.

It now appears that the four passengers and two crew members that were held hostage have been released.

The plane was forced to land in Antalya on the south coast of Turkey, as it did not have enough fuel to go to Iran as the hijackers wanted.

Doganer told private broadcaster NTV that the earlier release of passengers were freely given by the hijackers or had escaped through the emergency exits.

TV footage showed passengers running from the plane's side and back doors. NTV quoted one witness as saying the hijackers had said they were members of al Qaeda and another as saying they spoke Arabic and wanted to go to Syria. Some witnesses said there was a bomb.

Cyprus, a major tourist destination, is divided between the internationally recognised government in the south and an enclave in the north recognised only by Ankara.

Plane hijacks and bomb threats are not uncommon in Turkey, where a number of radical groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to far-left militants operate. In the last year or so several incidents have been resolved without any passengers being harmed.