Air France passengers arrive in Paris after bomb scare

Air France passengers have arrived safely in Paris a day after a fake bomb forced them into an emergency landing and evacuation in Kenya.

Passenger Marine Gorlier, of the French town of Melun, cried as she met family members at Charles de Gaulle Airport. “We thought we were going to die,” she said.

Antoine Dupont, of Lille, said: “I really admired the crew, because they thought it was a real bomb and they remained very serene,” he said. “One of my grandchildren said: ’The (evacuation) slide was super.”’

All 459 passengers and 14 crew members travelling from Mauritius to Paris were safely evacuated when a device was found in a toilet. It was later declared to be a fake bomb.

It was the fourth recent bomb hoax against Air France.

France has been in a state of emergency since Islamic extremist attacks November 13.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny has announced that an an Air France passenger has been detained over the bomb alert.

The suspect was not identified but the arrest is part of an investigation prompted by a lawsuit by Air France for reckless endangerment.