Cyprus police said the hijacker had contacted the control tower at 8:30 am (0530 GMT) and the plane was given permission to land at 8:50 am.
A crisis team was deployed to the airport, the main entry point for tourists to the Mediterranean resort island, reports AFP. The plane was parked on the tarmac away from the new terminal building but just 200 metres (yards) from a beach where dozens of foreign tourists were out. The aircraft was cordoned off by armed police.
The airport was closed during the crisis with incoming flights diverted to Paphos on the island’s western edge.
The hijacker made no immediate demands, Cypriot state television reported.
The EgyptAir plane was headed from the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria to Cairo with 81 passengers on board when it was seized, Egyptian civil aviation said. The airline tweeted: “Our Flight MS181 is officially hijacked.”
The Cyprus foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that the flight “was hijacked and diverted to Larnaca international airport”. It said “crisis management plans” had been put in place and that the country’s National Crisis Centre had been in contact with Egyptian authorities.
Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Twitter that President Nicos Anastasiades had spoken by telephone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The motive of the hijacking was not clear.
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