PIA plane lands in Istanbul after bomb threat

ISTANBUL: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane en route to Britain from Pakistan made an emergency landing in Istanbul on Wednesday after the airline received an anonymous bomb threat, a PIA spokesman said.

The plane landed at Istanbul's international Ataturk airport in the west of the city after PIA received an anonymous email saying there was a bomb on board the Boeing 777 aircraft which was headed from Lahore to Manchester in northern England, the spokesman said.

All passengers had been safely removed from the plane while security forces searched the aircraft, he added.

A second spokesman later said no explosives were found, and the plane was getting ready to resume its flight to Manchester.

Television footage from Turkey's private Dogan news agency earlier showed a PIA airliner on the tarmac while passengers were allowed to disembark and were seen being bussed to the terminal building. Fire engines and ambulances could be seen close to the plane.

Turkish police could not be reached immediately for comment.

Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency said the plane was a Boeing 777-300 ER with 378 passengers on board. It said the plane had been flying over the Bulgarian capital Sofia, west of Turkey, when it diverted to Istanbul. (Reuters)