PARIS - Algerian security forces arrested a lone hijacker who seized an Air Algerie plane yesterday. All 232 passengers were safe, the Algerian Interior Ministry said.
The hijacker, an Algerian national, was unarmed. The ministry said that he seized the state airline's Boeing 767 at Oran's Es Senia airport at around 9 a.m. and prevented it from taking off on a domestic flight to Algiers. The ministry, whose security forces have been fighting Muslim fundamentalists for more than four years, said the hijacker's motives were unknown.