Passengers leave hijacked plane

A man was arrested and the passengers allowed to leave a Turkish Airlines plane in Athens early on Saturday, ending a hijacking that began in Turkey.

The drama began when a hijacker saying he was armed with explosives commandeered a domestic Turkish flight and forced it to land in Greece.

It was unclear if the hijacker had surrendered to end the five-hour ordeal for 204 people - 196 passengers and 8 crew members.

Officials said the hijacker was a 20-year-old Turkish citizen, and did not appear to be tied to a terrorist organization. His aims were unclear, but he initially wanted to fly to Berlin and complained that his mother and sister were being kept "hostage," Turkey's Transportation Ministry said.

Greek anti-terrorist police earlier surrounded the Airbus A310 plane on the runway in Athens, and a top police official had been at the airport to negotiate with the hijacker.

Turkish police said the hijacker, whom they identified as Ozgur Gencarslan, was seen carrying five candle sticks as he boarded the plane. They said he could have been pretending that the candles were explosives - as occurred in a previous hijacking in Istanbul in February.