A Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus for several hours on Sunday, with activists saying it was done to arrest a dissident journalist on board.

European nations reacted with outrage, accusing Belarus of "state terrorism".

The ex-editor of the Nexta group, Roman Protasevich, was detained before the plane was allowed to resume its flight.

Flight FR4978 was en route from Athens to Vilnius when it turned east to Minsk shortly before it reached the Lithuanian border. Greece and Lithuania put the number of passengers on board at 171.

In a statement, Ryanair said that the crew had been "notified by Belarus (Air Traffic Control) of a potential security threat onboard and were instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk".

Belarus media said a MiG-29 escorted the jet to Minsk because of a bomb scare, but no explosives were found.

The plane finally landed in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, its original destination, at 21:25 local time (18:25 GMT), more than seven hours after its scheduled arrival.

Arriving passengers stated they had been given no information about the reason for the abrupt diversion to Minsk. One stated that Roman Protasevich looked "super scared. I looked directly to his eyes, and it was very sad".

Another passenger stated that "He just turned to people and said he was facing the death penalty."

The US ambassador to Belarus called the abduction of a journalist using state terrorism, and the EU warned of dire consequences.

They also demanded the immediate release of the abducted 26-year-old journalist.


Source: BBC