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Bomb scare forces British Airways plane to make emergency landing in Delhi

A British Airways aircraft, overflying India, made an emergency landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi on Tuesday morning when its crew spotted an unclaimed packet and suspected it to be a bomb, a senior police official said.

The Singapore-London flight -- BA 061 -- made an emergency landing at 0157 IST after the pilot sought permission citing detection of the packet kept on a seat, Joint Commissioner of Police (Operations) A S Khan said.

An emergency was declared at the airport, he said, adding the aircraft was taken to a separate bay.

The police, assisted by the Bureau of Civil Aviation security authorities, carried out a thorough search, Khan said.

Passengers were offloaded and taken to a hotel. The object, which was suspected to be a bomb, was found to be a toilet pack containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and some other items, he added.

Airport authorities said the flight has been cleared and is expected to takeoff in an hour or two.

The passengers were granted temporary visas by the Indian immigration authorities before being shifted to a hotel, they said.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said, "We cannot take such calls lightly. We have to take all precautions to meet emergency situations every time such a call is made."

Today's incident is the third one involving aviation security in the past few days. A Bangladeshi national arrested by the police on Monday for interrogation on suspicion of being a terrorist after the civil aviation ministry got information that he was travelling by Bangladesh's Biman Airlines.

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