Alitalia crew foils hijack bid

Rome: Italian airline Alitalia has said an agitated passenger tried to attack a flight attendant aboard a Rome-bound flight and demanded the plane be diverted to Tripoli, Libya.

But other attendants subdued the man and the flight landed safely in the Italian capital as scheduled.

Alitalia says all 131 passengers aboard flight AZ329 from Paris on Sunday night are safe and that police at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport took the man into custody for questioning.

The Italian news agency ANSA says the middle-aged passenger, a man from Kazakhstan, had brandished a nail clipper against a female attendant. Alitalia says the attendant was unharmed.