An Afghan airliner that went missing with more than one-hundred-and-seventy people on board is in the air again, after landing briefly at Tashkent in neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Roads leading to Tashkent airport were sealed off while the aircraft was there but it's not clear what transpired between Uzbek officials and anyone on the plane.

The Taleban authorities in Afghanistan say the Boeing 7-2-7 -- belonging to Ariana airlines -- has been hijacked and is heading for Moscow.

They first lost contact with the plane while it was on an internal flight from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. United Nations sanctions against the Taleban authorities in Afghanistan forbid Ariana from flying outside its home country.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service