Kenyan police question Air France passengers following bomb scare
Nairobi (dpa) - Kenyan police were interrogating some of the passengers on an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris in connection with a bomb scare which forced the plane to make an emergency landing, the Interior Ministry in Nairobi said on Sunday.
Earlier that day, Air France flight AF463 was diverted to Mombasa airport, which was briefly shut down due to the scare, disrupting other flights. The plane was carrying 459 passengers and a crew of 14.
Two of the passengers are suspected of carrying a suspicious device into the plane's lavatory, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told the press at a conference at Mombasa airport.
Four passengers are reportedly of interest to the authorities. It is not clear if they have been taken into custody.
Air France and the Kenyan authorities were working together with the French embassy in Kenya to provide accommodation and return flights to the passengers and crew, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius mobilized the ministry's crisis centre on Sunday in response to the bomb scare.
France has been on high alert for terror threats after deadly attacks in January and November, with Islamic State claiming a role in both. France has been in the group's sights because it has cooperated with attacks upon Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
Kenya Airports had announced on Twitter that the suspected explosive device had "been successfully retrieved from the aircraft,"
Joseph Boinnett, head of Kenya's police, confirmed that a suspected explosive had been removed and was being studied by explosives experts.
A passenger discovered the suspicious item in a lavatory and then alerted the crew, according to Kenyan police.
"We realized that something was probably wrong, but the Air France staff was really brilliant, really marvellous. They kept everyone quite calm," one passenger told France's BFMTV broadcaster.
"We did not know what was really happening. We refastened our seatbelts and they told us that we had to land at Mombasa because there was a technical problem, but in actual fact it wasn't a technical problem," he said.
When asked by the interviewer whether he had seen anything he said he hadn't, but that others had.
Air France confirmed to dpa that the plane landed in Kenya at 12:36 am (2236 GMT Saturday), with passengers then evacuated from the plane by slides and then helped to accommodations by ground staff. The airline plans to send them back on their way to Paris later Sunday.
"Air France is working in close cooperation with the authorities, which are investigating to identify the source of the threat and its exact nature," said Air France in a statement.
The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, which lies about 1,000 kilometres east of Madagascar, is a favourite vacation destination for French nationals because a large part of the island's population can speak French.
