In a sudden nightime flurry of activity at Stansted airport near London, about eighty-five people -- mainly women and children -- have left the hijacked Afghan plane.

Announcing the release, British police said intense negotiations with the hijackers were continuing to try to secure the release of more people, including face-to-face talks with two of the hijackers who'd left the plane a short while earlier.

A spokesman said the released people were being taken to a safe location and police were making sure they did not include any hijackers.

Between sixty and seventy people are now thought to remain aboard the aircraft.

Before the latest developments, police said negotiations had taken a positive turn and reached a delicate point.

Tension had risen after four crew members escaped through a cockpit window late on Tuesday. The plane landed at Stansted after being hijacked on an internal flight four days ago and made to fly across Central Asia and via Moscow.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service