Tripoli:The hijackers of a Sudanese plane Wednesday have begun releasing all the passengers of the plane at Libya's Al-Qafra airport, Libyan civil aviation officials said.

A spokesman for the civil aviation authority said that after negotiations, the hijakcers had agreed to release the passengers, but that the crew members must remain on board.

Previously, the director of the airport had said that several passengers had fainted from the heat.

The Boeing 737 plane had been hijacked Tuesday when it was flying from the city of Nyala in Darfur to the capital Khartoum.

The hijackers - believed to be Darfur rebels - demanded that the plane be flown to Paris, with the aircraft having to make a fuelling stop at Al-Qafra airport.

Some 95 people - 87 passengers and eight crew members - were on board the plane when it was hijacked.

Source : IANS