DHAKA: An emergency landing of an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris in Kenya was caused by a false bomb alert.

The airline’s chief says, reports the BBC.

Frederic Gagey told a news conference that the suspected package turned out to have been made of paper and a timer.

The pilots of the Boeing 777 requested to land at Moi International Airport in Mombasa after the item was found in a toilet.

Both the aircraft and airport were safely evacuated.

Gagey told journalists that the device appeared to be made of a carton, sheets of paper and some sort of kitchen timer.

He thanked the crew and the Kenyan authorities for the way they had handled the incident - the fourth such false alarm since the 13 November Paris attacks.

A police official quoted by the media said a passenger had noticed an object in the toilet that looked like ‘a stopwatch mounted on a box’.

Gagey said the crew was alerted, and the pilots informed. The pilots decided to land at the nearest airport.

BDST: 2131 HRS, DEC 20, 2015
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