Bomb scare forces Israeli fighters to intercept aircraft

Israeli fighter jets forced a passenger plane bound for Tel Aviv to land in Cyprus yesterday in the sixth such bomb scare to hit flights over Europe in the past week.

Israeli fighter jets forced a passenger plane bound for Tel Aviv to land in Cyprus yesterday in the sixth such bomb scare to hit flights over Europe in the past week.

The Lufthansa flight carrying 347 passengers and crew from Frankfurt was searched at Larnaca airport by police with sniffer dogs. German police said an anonymous threat had been madebut it was not considered serious. Israel refused the pilots permission to enter its airspace until security checks had been made.

Greece's Olympic Airlines has had three flights diverted by hoax calls recently. The latest was an Airbus A300 that was forced to spend the night in Corfu on Monday. Earlier on Monday a Singapore Airlines flight to New York was forced to land at Manchester airport.