Knifeman Foiled

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-09-02 AT 07:46 AM (GMT)]A passenger armed with a knife has tried to enter the cockpit of a flight from Bombay to the Maldives.
Crew members and passengers on the Air Seychelles plane tackled the man and wrestled him to the floor.

One flight attendant was injured as the knife was pulled away from the attacker, the AFP news agency reported.

Police arrested the knifeman and detained another passenger for questioning when the Boeing-737 landed at Male in the Maldives.

The Maldivian Director General of Civil Aviation, Mohammed Razi, told AFP: “We are not sure of his nationality, but he was carrying an Indian passport. We are also questioning another passenger who could be linked to the man in custody.”

Reports from the Maldives said the arrested man was a 41-year-old construction worker.

Mr Razi said it was possible that a hijack had been foiled.

“The man with the knife had said he wanted to divert the aircraft to another destination, but we have no other details,” he told AFP.

“Actually, the incident did not develop into a full-scale hijacking because the crew managed to overpower the man before he got to the cockpit.”

The plane was carrying at least 70 people, mostly Indian nationals believed to be travelling to the Indian Ocean islands of the Maldives or the Seychelles on holiday.

It was expected that it would be allowed to leave the Male International Airport to continue its scheduled service to the Seychelles.

from news.bbc.co.uk