Negotiations with a suicide bomber have begun after he hijacked and ordered an EgyptAir plane to land in Cyprus.
The plane which had at least 81 passengers on board was scheduled to land in Cairo from Alexandria but was forced to divert.
According to reports, all passengers, with the exception of seven crew members and five foreigners, have been released.
Egyptian officials did not disclose the details of the ongoing negotiation which led to the release of the passengers.
Spokesman for Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry, Ehab Raslan, said it was doubtful the hijacker had any explosives.
“I doubt that he had any explosives because security has been heightened across all Egyptian airports but we will be able to confirm later.
“An Egyptian team is conducting the negotiations with the hijacker,” Raslan said.
A statement from the ministry says that non-Egyptian passengers include eight Americans, four Dutch, two Belgians, four Britons, one Syrian, one French and one Italian.
The statement did not identify which of these passengers are still on board the plane.
The incident is only one of multiple terror attacks carried out in recent months. The motivation behind the hijacking is yet to be disclosed.
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