LONDON, Oct. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- A Singapore Airlines plane flying from Germany's Frankfurt to New York was diverted to Manchester airport in northwestern England on Monday following a bomb threat which was probably a hoax, Greater Manchester Police said.

    It was the fourth airline diverted due to bomb scare in Europe in just over a week.

    The Boeing 747-400, carrying 293 passengers and 19 crew, landed safely at around 1000 GMT without a military escort, police said.

    "Early indications are that it could be a hoax but we cannot confirm that one way or another until full checks are carried out," a Great Manchester Police spokeswoman said.

    "The plane landed ... and taxied to the end of the runway. All passengers and crew have been disembarked, " a spokesman for Manchester airport said.

    The spokesman said the reason was "a specific threat to the aircraft" but did not reveal more details.

    A spokeswoman for Singapore Airlines (SIA) confirmed the diversion, adding that no one had been injured in the incident.

    "Flight SQ26 departed from Frankfurt at 0831 am local time. It was diverted to Manchester Airport as a security precaution following information received by Singapore Airlines from the German authorities," she said.

    "As the information relates to security, SIA cannot detail it,"she added.

    Last week, three flights -- one British Airways flight from Berlin to London and two Greek Olympic Airlines planes from Athensto New York, were diverted due to similar anonymous calls warning a bomb was on the plane shortly after the planes had taken off.

    The British Airways flight was diverted to Amsterdam last Thursday. The Greek flights were diverted to London's Heathrow and Ireland's Shannon airports respectively on Sept. 26 and Sept. 28.

    Nothing suspicious had been found during exhaustive searches ofthe three aircraft after the emergency landing. Enditem