Algeria hijack bid foiled

The pilot and co-pilot were beaten up

An attempt to hijack an airliner in Algeria has ended without injury to the more than 160 passengers and crew aboard.

The Algerian news agency said three men had burst into the cockpit of the Air Algerie Boeing 737 during a flight from the eastern city of Constantine to the capital, Algiers, and demanded to see senior officials on landing.

He was not behaving normally and was either under the influence or drugs or alcohol

Air Algeria official

When the plane arrived at Algiers airport, security forces arrested the three men.

The hijack attempt was not apparently linked to Islamic extremists, who have been fighting a 10-year war against the government.

During the flight, the hijackers broke into the cockpit and assaulted the pilot and co-pilot before being overpowered by crew members, according to an Algerian official quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

South Korea

An Air Algerie official told local radio that one of the three men, apparently the leader, "had asked for the (plane's) tanks to be re-filled with kerosene in order to fly to Asia, to South Korea to be precise."

"It turned out he was not behaving normally and was either under the influence or drugs or alcohol," he said.

This is the first hijacking on an Air Algerie flight since Christmas Eve 1994, when gunmen from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) took over a plane bound for Paris.

French police ended the hijacking by storming the plane in Marseilles, leading to the deaths of three passengers, along with the hijackers.