Saudi negotiators demand release of hijacking hostages

Officials are negotiating with the hijackers of a Russian plane which is holding 162 hostages at a Saudi airport.

The hijackers claim the plane, which has been surrounded on the tarmac at Medina by buses packed with soldiers and ambulances, has a bomb on board.

A Saudi security official said there is no intention of raiding the plane and If the passengers are not released soon, the pilot will be ordered to take off, the official said.

Sky News is reporting that the hijackers are demanding and end to the war in Chechnya.

The airliner has been hijacked by two Chechens armed with knives after leaving Istanbul and dived 10,000ft after one of the men struggled with a pilot.

The plane dropped to 14,000ft after one of the hijackers entered the cockpit and demanded the airliner change direction.

There are 103 Russians and 59 Turks on board the jetliner.

The hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, ended last week in Saudi Arabia and the airport at the holy city of Medina, was full of pilgrims returning to their countries.

Meanwhile, the FSB, successor to the KGB secret service, has set up a team to help liberate the passengers from the charter flight if necessary.

Turkish Transport Minister Enis Oksuz says the hijackers claim they are carrying explosives and added a passenger at the entrance to the cockpit has been injured during a fight with the hijackers.

The plane had been on a scheduled flight from Istanbul to Moscow. The hijacked aircraft entered Egyptian airspace at 1345 GMT. The pilot said the airliner was heading to Medina, Saudi Arabia.

The plane, a Russian built TU-154 from Vnukovo Airlines, took off at 11.30 GMT from Istanbul's Ataturk International airport. The two hijackers took over the plane 30 minutes later.