China foils attack on passenger plane

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday foiled a planned attack on a passenger plane taking off from Urumqi, capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said here on Sunday.

The China Southern Airlines aircraft took off at 10:35, and landed in Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province, at 12:40Friday, before reaching its destination Beijing, because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster," said Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament session.

The attackers were stopped in time by the air police, and all the passengers and crew members on board are safe, he told reporters after a panel discussion at the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC). The plane arrived in Beijing Saturday morning.

An official with the airliner told Xinhua in a telephone interview that he cannot confirm whether the incident was a terror attack, "it's up to the police department to verify."

The crew and air police reported the incident to control tower, and landed in Lanzhou under the instruction of the tower, said the aviation official on condition of anonymity.

The suspects were currently in custody in Lanzhou, an official with the Xinjiang regional government said, without giving the number of the suspects.

Nur Bekri, the regional government chairman, said that the authorities are currently investigating "who the attackers are, where they are from and what's their background."

"But we can be sure that this was a case intending to create an air crash," he added.