A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane was diverted to Sweden on Saturday after a bomb threat, but no explosives were found on board or in possession of a Canadian man detained by police and later set free.
The alert began after a woman in Canada called the police from a payphone to say a man on board had explosives on him.
The Boeing 777 with 273 people on board was diverted to Sweden while en route from Toronto to Karachi.
PHOTO: AFP
A Canadian man of Pakistani origin, in his 30s but whose identity was not made public, was detained after the plane landed as the passengers were evacuated. After being questioned, he was set free.
“The suspicions against the man were not sufficiently strong for an arrest order and he is therefore free to leave Sweden,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Police earlier said they had found no explosives on the man or the plane, which departed again before he was set free.
Stockholm district police spokesman Ulf Lindgren said the man would get help with the practical details of how to reach his planned destination.
The Swedish police have declined to say whether they view the incident as a hoax, saying only that they had to take it seriously. In Canada, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said investigations were ongoing.
“If it’s judged to be a hoax, the person who called can be charged with public mischief,” said Sergeant Juli Gagnon.
She had no information on the identity of the caller.
Janne Hedlun, another spokesman for Stockholm district police, was quoted by Aftonbladet newspaper as saying the man “had no idea” about why the incident happened.
The plane departed for Manchester, England, for a change of crew and then to resume its flight to Pakistan.
Pakistan International Airlines spokesman Syed Sultan Hassan said the plane had 255 passengers on board, including 102 Canadian nationals and 139 Pakistani nationals.
The plane was diverted to Arlanda after Canadian police told the pilot of the threat while the plane was in Swedish airspace.
A spokesman for Arlanda airport said the plane had departed from Toronto and Toronto Airport’s Web site showed the destination of the flight — PK782 — was Karachi.
After the plane landed, armed police took position nearby to seize the man when the passengers began to disembark to waiting buses. Police said the detention took place without incident.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese