Libyan airplane hijackers surrender, release all hostages (2)

TRIPOLI, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Hijackers who forced the Libyan airplane diverted to Malta Friday have surrendered peacefully, with all hostages released.

Television footage showed the two hijackers taken into custody in handcuffs, with no signs of struggle or violence.

"Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken into custody," said Joseph Muscat, prime minister of Malta in a tweet.

The two hijackers said they were loyal to the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was toppled in the uprising of 2011.

A Libyan TV channel reported that one of the two men identified himself as Mousa Shaha. He claimed by phone that he was the head of Al-Fateh Al-Jaded party, new Al-Fateh, a name that Gaddafi gave to his coup in 1969.

Media reports said that the two men demanded asylum in Malta.

The airplane belongs to the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways and was intended to fly from Sabha in southern Libya to Tripoli's Mitiga airport, when two men hijacked it and threatened to blow the airbus A320 with hand grenade.