China on Friday foiled a planned attack on a passenger plane taking off from Urumqi, capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said in Beijing on Sunday.

The China Southern Airlines aircraft took off at 10:35, and landed in Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province, at 12:40 Friday, before reaching its destination Beijing, because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster," said Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament session.

The attackers were stopped in time by the air police, and all the passengers and crew members on board are safe, he told reporters after a panel discussion at the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC). The plane arrived in Beijing Saturday morning.

An official with the airliner told Xinhua in a telephone interview that he cannot confirm whether the incident was a terror attack, "it's up to the police department to verify."

The crew and air police reported the incident to the control tower, and landed in Lanzhou under the instruction of the tower, said the aviation official on condition of anonymity.

The suspects were currently in custody in Lanzhou, an official with the Xinjiang regional government said, without giving the number of the suspects.

Nur Bekri said that the authorities are currently investigating "who the attackers are, where they are from and what their backgrounds are."

"But we can be sure that this was a case intending to create an air crash," he added.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of China (CPC) Xinjiang chief Wang Lequan said the terrorists killed and captured more than a month ago in Urumqi had planned an attack targeting the Beijing Olympic Games.

Chinese police smashed a terrorist gang in late January, killing two and arresting 15 others. Knives, axes, grenades and books about terrorism were seized.

The group was said to have collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group the United Nations labeled a terrorist organization in 2002.

"The Olympic Games slated for this August is a big event, but there are always a few people who conspire sabotages. It is no longer a secret now," said Wang.

In early 2007 police destroyed a terrorist training camp in the Pamir plateau, killing 18 terrorists and capturing 17.

Wang vowed to adopt a strike-first policy against the "three evil forces" of terrorists, separatists and extremists, saying "we are prepared to strike whenever their conspiracies are detected" on Sunday at the meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 10, 2008)