Passengers beat up hijacker

MADRID

Passengers on a hijacked Air Mauritania flight ended their ordeal when they stormed the cockpit and beat up the lone gunman after the aircraft landed in the Canary Islands on Thursday night, Spanish police said.

As armed police surrounded the Boeing 737 on the runway, five passengers and the co-pilot burst into the cockpit and knocked the hijacker to the ground before beating him up. “When we landed at Las Palmas . . . we entered [the cockpit] and hit him and knocked him down,” one passenger said. The fight gave the crew time to let in security forces, who arrested the man.

Spanish police could not confirm reports that the pilot had deliberately braked hard on landing, knocking the hijacker off his feet and that he had then been jumped on by passengers. The hijacker fired two bullets during the scuffle, but no one was seriously hurt. (Reuters)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1398088.ece