Bomb threats divert four China flights

BEIJING - Four domestic Chinese flights were diverted on Thursday after bomb threats were received, state media reported, days after an attack rocked Tiananmen Square in the capital.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that an unidentified suspect had been arrested in connection with the false threats, which affected four flights to or from Changsha in the central province of Hunan.

Searches of the aircraft found no explosive devices.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspect was the same person responsible for a multiple bomb threat made two days earlier, also at Changsha airport.

According to central broadcaster CCTV, Tuesday's threats led to delayed flights for more than 1,000 passengers.

"During the night, 11 flights were affected," Zeng Guangcai, command centre head of Changsha International Airport, told CCTV. "The longest flight delay was two hours and 10 minutes."

The hoaxes come on the heels of Monday's deadly attack in Tiananmen Square, when a sports utility vehicle drove along the pavement and ploughed into crowds, killing two tourists, before crashing and bursting into flames outside the Forbidden City.

The three people inside also died in what police called a terrorist attack.