All the passengers and crew have been released from a hijacked plane traveling from Libya to Tripoli and the hijackers have been taken into custody, authorities said.
Officials in Libya confirmed Friday that an Afriqiyah Airways plane with more than 100 people on board was hijacked to Malta.
The Libyan flight landed at Malta's international airport, where emergency and security personnel were waiting, CNN reported.
The Associated Press reported
State television TVM said the people accused of hijacking the Libyan plane had hand grenades and threatened to explode them. Airport officials said the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 flight had 118 passengers and crew on board.
The office of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed that a negotiating team is on standby at the airport, waiting for instructions from the prime minister. Muscat is meeting with the National Security Committee, CNN reported.
Muscat said in a tweet that the plane was carrying 111 passengers, including one infant. Muscat said 109 of the passengers have been released and the other two would likely be the two hijackers, according to French news agency AFP. An additional seven crew members were on board.
The plane was on its way from Sabha, a city in southwestern Libya, to the capital, Tripoli. The oil-rich country is split between rival governments, each backed by different militia groups.
The hijackers are two men in their 20s who are seeking political asylum in Europe, a spokesman for the UN-brokered government in Libya told The Associated Press. They wanted to go to Rome, however they were limited by the amount of fuel on the plane. They were found armed with a gun and a grenade. Another gun was found aboard the plane.
The Associated Press reported that Malta International Airport said it began returning to normal operations Friday night.
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