A Russian Azur Air plane with 244 people on board made an emergency landing at a military airfield in India due to a bomb threat, authorities said on Tuesday.
The plane, carrying 236 passengers and eight crew members from Moscow to Goa in south-west India, landed at the Indian Air Force’s Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat state late Monday evening.
According to local media, the flight was diverted from its route after Azur Air received an email informing them there was a bomb on board the plane. The Russian Embassy in India said it had been alerted by Indian authorities.
“All people on board are safe. The authorities are conducting a thorough inspection of the aircraft,” the Russian embassy said on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
State police told AFP that an anti-terrorist unit was inspecting the plane and the luggage of passengers on board while the passengers waited at the airport. “Nothing suspicious has been found so far,” Premsukh Delu, a Jamnagar police official, said Tuesday.
Russian tourists have been banned from many countries since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but they continue to flock to India in large numbers, particularly to the coast of Goa.