The flight bound for Paris made an emergency landing in Mombasa in the early hours of Sunday morning.
An Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris was forced into an emergency landing in the early hours of this morning after a suspicious device was discovered in the toilet on board the plane.
The flight, which left Mauritius at 9pm local time last night with 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board, made an emergency landing at Moi international airport in Mombasa in Kenya, shortly before 1am local time.
Investigators are still working to determine if a package found in the lavatory of the plane contains explosives, with the Kenyan Airport Authority reporting that what is “believed to be an explosive device has successfully been retrieved” from the Air France flight.
Police spokesman Charles Owino said: “It (Flight AF463) requested an emergency landing after a device suspected to be a bomb was discovered in the lavatory, an emergency was prepared and it landed safely and all passengers evacuated.”
“Bomb experts from the navy and the CID were called in and took the device which they are dismantling to establish if it had any explosives,” Owino said.
At least one passenger on board the plane is believed to have been held in custody, while a substitute plane was dispatched by Air France to pick up the remaining passengers.
An unnamed official was quoted on Kenyan website Standard Digital News as saying: “It is a real bomb and it could have exploded airborne or on arriving in Paris. More will be disclosed but we have a suspect in custody.”
Normal operations have subsequently resumed at Mombasa Airport after initial disruptions.
