20 April,2009 01:45 PM IST | | Agencies
An armed man is holding two passengers and five-crew members hostage aboard a charter plane on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, media reports said on Monday.
The news channel CNN reported that the hostage taker has now released all but two of the 150 passengers scheduled to be on the flight, and continues to hold five crew members.
The channel said that the plane has been surrounded by police who were now negotiating with the man.
The plane had been scheduled to fly from the Sangster International airport in Montego Bay to Halifax in Canada.
According to the online edition of local newspaper The Gleaner, at 11 pm Sunday the gunman boarded the plane using false identification documents, and proceeded to rob passengers on the aircraft before holding them hostage.
The newspaper also said that at least one shot had been fired on board the plane, although it is not clear if anyone was injured.
The Gleaner quoted staff at the airport as saying that the hostage-taker appeared to be a Latin-American male. The paper reported that the plane belonged to the CanJet airline, although this has not been confirmed by the company.
