Hijacked aircraft lands in Turkey

An AtlasJet heading for Istanbul was hijacked and passengers managed to escape the plane at Antalya Airport in Turkey today.

The plane landed in Turkey for refuelling purposes and security forces managed to negotiate with he hijackers and as a result elderly passengers and children were released.

Some passengers were injured when they rushed for the gates. There are still nine people and two crew members being held hostage.

The hijackers intended to fly the plane to the Iranian city of Tehran.

There is thought to be two hijackers onboard. One of them speaks Arabic and has a knife whilst the other was holding what is thought to be a bomb.

An escaped passenger told NT television: "They said they were from al-Qaida,"

The hijackers tried to take control of the cockpit after the pilots said they needed to refuel but failed taking instead one of the cabin crew and threatened to harm her.

Upon reaching the Turkish city of Antalya to refuel the pilots left the aircraft. In total there were 136 passengers and six crew members onboard the aircraft.