This television image shows passengers leaving the Atlasjet aircraft from the emergency exits after it was hijacked on its way to Istanbul from northern Cyprus, at Antalya Airport August 18, 2007.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    ANKARA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Ministry of Transportation Directorate General for Civil Aviation said a crisis desk was established to monitor all developments in a hijacking incident on Saturday morning.

    A passenger plane operated by the private Turkish airline company AtlasJet was hijacked when it was heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus earlier in the morning.

    The Directorate said in a statement that "the plane was hijacked by two male hijackers after taking off from Nicosia's Ercan Airport at 7:15 a.m. (0415 GMT)."

    A latest report by local NTV said the two hijackers are Iranians.

    "Despite hijackers' resistance, pilots managed to land the plane at the airport in the southern city of Antalya at 8:15 a.m.(0515 GMT)," the statement said.

    The hijackers forced open the passenger entry door of the plane and threatened authorities to harm crew members, demanding to negotiate with authorities by pledging to release elderly passengers and children, it added.

    Two pilots left the plane from cockpit window and an important part of the passengers had escaped from the rear door, the Directorate said.

    Efforts are under way to convince the hijackers to surrender to security forces, said the Directorate, adding that they refused to surrender and insisted on their demand to fly to Iranian capital city of Tehran.

    The semi-official Anatolia news agency reported earlier that several passengers were slightly injured when they were trying to flee from the hijacked plane.

    Sources were quoted by Anatolia as reporting that the passengers would be sent to Istanbul by another plane later in the day.

    A total of 136 passengers and six crew members were on board the Turkish plane when the two Iranians attempted to storm into the cockpit some 20 to 25 minutes after the plane took off.

    Although the hijackers wanted to fly the plane to Tehran, pilots managed to land the plane at the Antalya Airport for refuelling.

    Earlier report said that one of the hijackers was speaking Arabic and had a knife and the other was carrying a package which he claimed to be a bomb.

    Later, an escaped passenger told local television channel NTV that the two hijackers had claimed they were from al-Qaida.

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