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Fake bomb on flight forces emergency landing

The 'bomb' was in fact made of cardboard. Photo: Twitter

The 'bomb' was in fact made of cardboard. Photo: Twitter

Authorities have reportedly arrested four individuals after an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris was forced to perform an emergency landing following the discovery of a placing a fake explosive in the lavatory.

The flight landed in Mombasa, Kenya after the pretend explosive – made up of cardboard, paper and a timer – was found.

CNN reported that arrests were made following the landing of the plane, which was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members.

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AirFrance CEO Frederic Gagey said the suspicious object must have been planted during the flight.

“All the information available to us at the moment indicates that the object was not capable of creating an explosion or damaging a plane,” Mr Gagey told a news conference in the French capital.

“It was a false alarm.”

The 'bomb' was in fact made of cardboard. Photo: Twitter

The ‘bomb’ was in fact made of cardboard. Photo: Twitter

A passenger found the device in the aeroplane’s toilet on Sunday night and alerted the crew.

The Boeing 777 Air France flight 463 was heading to Paris when the pilots requested an emergency landing at the Moi International Airport at 12.37am (8.37am AEDT), police spokesman Charles Owino said.

“It requested an emergency landing when a device suspected to be an explosive was discovered in the lavatory,” Mr Owino said.

All passengers were safely evacuated using the emergency slides.

A passenger who spoke to journalists after leaving the plane in Mombasa described the emergency landing.

“The plane just went down slowly, slowly, slowly, so we just realised probably something was wrong,” Benoit Lucchini of Paris said.

“The personnel of Air France was just great, they were just wonderful. So they keep everybody calm. We did not know what was happening.

“So we secured the seat belt to land in Mombasa because we thought it was a technical problem but actually it was not a technical problem. It was something in the toilet. Something wrong in the toilet, it could be a bomb.”

– with AAP

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