Suspected bomb retrieved from grounded Air France flight

A Kenyan police official said Sunday six passengers are being questioned over a suspected bomb found on an Air France plane that forced the jet flying to Paris from Mauritius to make an emergency landing in Kenya.

The police official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said during the flight a passenger noticed something in a lavatory that looked like “a stopwatch mounted on a box.”

The passenger reported the device to the cabin crew, who informed the pilots, leading to an emergency landing at the airport in the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

The official said one of those being interrogated is the man who reported the package.

The Kenya Airports Authority said what is “believed to be an explosive device has successfully been retrieved” from an Air France flight.

Police say Air France Flight 463 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius when the pilots requested an emergency landing at the Moi International Airport in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa at 12:37 a.m. Sunday.

Police spokesman Charles Owino says the device was discovered in a lavatory of the Boeing 777. He says all of the plane’s 459 passengers and 14 crew were safely evacuated and bomb experts are studying the device.

The Airports Authority, in a Twitter post, says normal flight operations have resumed at Mombasa.