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An Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris was forced to make an emergency landing in Kenya after a suspicious package was found on board, Kenyan police said. Flight AF 463, which had 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board, had left Mauritius at 9pm local time and was due to arrive in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 5:50am on Saturday. The Boeing 777 landed at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, before 1am local time.
“It requested an emergency landing after a device suspected to be a bomb was discovered in the lavatory, an emergency was prepared and it landed safely and all passengers evacuated,” police spokesman Charles Owino said.
“Bomb experts from the Navy and the CID were called in and took the device which they are dismantling to establish if it had any explosives,” he said.
The plane was still in Mombasa airport in the early morning, he added. The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, which lies about 1,000km east of Madagascar, is a favourite vacation destination for French nationals.
France has been on high alert for threats after deadly attacks in Paris in January and November, with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claiming a role in both.
France has been in the group’s sights after it became a member of a coalition of nations which targets ISIL in Syria and Iraq. – AFP
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter