Antananarivo-Guangzhou flight makes stopover after false bomb report

A flight from Antananarivo to Guangzhou in southern China had to stop over on the French-ruled La Reunion island after receiving a false bomb report.

Midi, a French-language daily, reported Saturday that authorities at the Antananarivo international airport received an anonymous telephone call shortly after the flight took off at 1500p.m. local time (1200 GMT) Friday, saying that an explosive device was in luggage on the aircraft.

The flight stopped at the La Reunion airport to check each piece of luggage on the plane.

However, after nearly five hours of searching, the report said, nothing was found.

Madagascan Airline opened the Antananarivo-Guangzhou flight last July, with two flights to and from the two cities every Monday and Friday via La Reunion and Bangkok.