Paris-bound flight lands in Kenya over bomb scare

Police are investigating after a suspicious package was found on board an Air France plane bound for Paris, Kenyan police said.

Flight AF463, which had 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board, left Mauritius at 9 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and had been due to arrive in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 5:50 a.m.

But it made an emergency landing at Moi International Airport in the southern port city of Mombasa at 12:37 a.m. local time.

“It 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,” police spokesman Charles Owino said.

“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,” he said.

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A Facebook page purporting to represent the Kenyan Airports Authority calls the device a bomb, but there is no official confirmation that it was in fact an explosive device.

“Kenyan bomb experts discover a bomb inside Air France at Moi International Airport, Mombasa. The explosive was carried away to a safe place outside the airport,” the Facebook message reads.

— with AFP