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An EgyptAir flight from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, Larnaca police press office confirmed to CNN.

Flight 181 was an internal flight heading from Burj El Arab airport in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria to the capital Cairo, Ihab Raslan, spokesman for the Egyptian ministry of civil aviation, tells CNN.

The Airbus 320 has at least 81 people on board, a statement from the Egyptian ministry of civil aviation said.

Pilot Omar El Gamal has reported a threat from a passenger claiming to have an explosive belt, who forced the plane to land in Cyprus, the statement said.

“We don’t know whether it is real, but if it is, how on earth did he get it on board?” Geoffrey Thomas from Airlineratings.com told CNN.

Officials were negotiating with the hijacker, according to the airline’s Twitter account.

The negotiations resulted in the release of all the passengers except the cabin crew and four foreigners, the airline tweeted.

Questionable air security

The hijacking comes months after a Russian Metrojet passenger plane was downed over Egypt’s Sinai desert. While Russian authorities insisted the plane crash was the result of terrorism, one U.S. official said it was “99.9% certain” the cause. Another said it was “likely.”

Egypt was insisting that airports were safe, and that tourists should come back. But this is going to raise a lot of questions about just how safe the country, and its air travel is, CNN’s Ian Lee says.

Questions about the amount of security at the airports, have been raised, but the quality of the security.