EgyptAir hijack over, hijacker surrenders, no explosives on plane

Searches by Cyprus police found no explosives on the hijacker of an EgyptAir plane diverted to the island or inside the aircraft, a police source told AFP. The hijacker, who is in custody after surrendering to police following a six-hour standoff at Larnaca airport, had claimed to be wearing an explosives belt, Egyptian officials said. Counter-terrorism police frisked the hijacker on the tarmac then interrogated him for more than an hour before boarding the plane and searching it with sniffer dogs. Egypt prime minister says hijacker's motives unclear Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the man who hijacked an EgyptAir plane and diverted it to Cyprus was an Egyptian national who had asked to meet European Union officials or to fly on to another airport. Ismail told reporters that authorities would question the hijacker to ascertain his true motives, which remained a mystery. "At some moments he asked to meet with a representative of the European Union and at other points he asked to go to another airport but there was nothing specific," he said.