DHAKA: An EgyptAir plane flying from Cairo to Beijing has been forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat.

All 118 passengers and 17 crew on board the Airbus A330-220 were checked out at Urgench International Airport, in the east of the country, BBC reports on Wednesday (June 8).

The aircraft was being searched by local authorities.

Last month, an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

The cause of the crash remains a mystery, although French investigators said a week ago that signals from one of the plane’s black boxes had been detected.

There has so far been no comment from EgyptAir on Wednesday’s incident.

But unnamed Egyptian officials told the media that an anonymous caller had telephoned security agents at Cairo’s airport to say a bomb was on board the flight to Beijing.

The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and told it to land at the nearest airport, they said.

BDST: 1558 HRS, JUN 08, 2016
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