"Terrorist threat" forces China plane to land
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Buy SPH photosBEIJING (AFP) - A plane was forced to make an emergency landing when it received an "anonymous terrorist threat" after taking off from China's restive north-western Xinjiang region on Monday, state media said.
The plane landed at an airport Lanzhou in China's north-west province of Gansu following the alert at around 0930 GMT (5.30 pm Singapore time), state-run news agency Xinhua said, quoting the airline and local security sources.
The CZ680 China Southern Airlines flight had originally taken off from Istanbul in Turkey, before its scheduled arrival at Xinjiang's provincial capital, Urumqi. It was on route for Beijing when the alert happened. The reports gave no further details, and did not say who had made the "terrorist threat".
Similar incidents on Chinese planes are rare, although a year ago a plane bound for Urumqi was forced into an emergency landing after a passenger claimed there was a bomb on board.
