DIYARBAKIR, Turkey Turkish police yesterday questioned a foiled hijacker who seized an airliner overnight armed with a Teddy Bear in which he claimed to have hidden a bomb. Hijacker Mehmet Dal was being interrogated by anti-terror police in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, hours after passengers ended their ordeal without bloodshed by overpowering him, an official at the regional governor's office told Reuters. Dal, a 31-year-old Turk who had demanded to be flown to neighboring Iran, had no clear purpose in seizing the plane and was not acting on behalf of a group, officials said.

They said there was no bomb in the toy bear. Dal hijacked the RJ-100 plane, carrying 63 passengers and five crew, shortly after it took off from the southern Turkish city of Adana on a flight to Ankara late on Tuesday night. Passengers from the hijacked Turkish Airlines plane were flown to Ankara on another plane and reunited with their families on Wednesday morning, Anatolian news agency said.

The Diyarbakir police chief said Dal had spent a total of nine months in prison for theft and drug-related crimes. The hijacker was a psychopath and had no aim, Anatolian reported him as saying. (Reuter)