Gunmen attempt to hijack plane in Somalia

MOGADISHU: Unidentified gunmen in northeastern Somalia unsuccessfully tried to hijack a local commercial plane with two German journalists on board, officials said on Tuesday.

Two men armed with two pistols, who somehow managed to evade security screening in Bossaso, commercial capital of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, attempted to enter the cockpit during flight from the port city to neighboring Djibouti, but were prevented by flight attendants and passengers, said Muse Gele, governor of the Bari region in Puntland.

The hijacking was aimed at kidnapping the two Germans on board the plane in the hope of exchanging them for local pirates arrested by NATO forces patrolling the pirate-infested Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, Gelle said.

The aircraft from the local Daallo Airlines resumed its flight to Djibouti after the end of the ordeal.

A local fixer working for the two German journalists was briefly detained before cleared of any involvement in the attempted kidnapping of the German reporters.

Foreign journalists often come to the region, a hotbed for the rampant piracy off Somalia, to cover the menace, but some end up in the hands of kidnappers who demand ransom for their release.