Passengers were kept on board for about five hours before the evacuation began. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM - A PLANE due to leave Rotterdam for Bodrum in Turkey was evacuated late on Tuesday after emergency services received a telephone threat saying it would be hijacked, Dutch authorities said.
Passengers on the plane, operated by Dutch budget airline Transavia, were kept on board for about five hours before the evacuation began.
'The plane is now empty and all passengers left in a calm manner,' a Dutch police spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor said two men and a woman who had been aboard the aircraft were being questioned.
'The telephoned threat was in the nature of a hijack or a hostage-taking,' she said.
Police were still searching the plane, she added.
A Transavia spokesman said 114 people had been on board.
Passengers were offered an alternative flight to Turkey later, she said. -- REUTERS
