STOCKHOLM: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane was diverted to Sweden on Saturday after a bomb threat, but no explosives were found on board or on a Canadian man detained by police after the plane landed, police said.
Swedish police declined to say if the incident was a hoax. 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.
A Canadian man of Pakistani origin, in his 30s, was detained after the plane landed as the passengers were evacuated. He was later released without any charges.
'No explosives were found on the plane or on the man. The passengers and crew are back on the plane and it is ready to take off again,' a spokesman for Stockholm district police said.
Asked if the police were treating the incident as a hoax, he only said the authorities had had to take the threat 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 was to fly to Manchester in England for a change of crew and then resume its flight to Pakistan.
PIA 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. Toronto airport's website showed the destination of that flight, PK782, was Karachi.
After the plane landed, armed police took position near it to seize the man when the passengers began to disembark to waiting buses. Police said the detention took place calmly.
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